Amaranth and Rose
by YearOfTheKitty
Summary: Light didn't expect to wake up as a cat-person, and certainly not to be sent to an alternate world that defies all logic. Even worse is the army intent on his death, and his allies aren't much better. Full summary inside. LxLight MelloxMatt
1. Well, This Sucks

(A/N: Am I the only one who thought this

6

_Title: Amaranths and Roses_

_Author: YearOfTheKitty_

_Beta: Requested/needed/begged for_

_Disclaimer: I don't own Death Note, but Amaranths and Roses is mine. _

_Warnings: Um. Maybe slight cussing, and probably some kind of violence. Definite yaoi._

_Summary: Light didn't expect to wake up as a cat-person, and certainly not to be sent to an alternate dimension that seems to defy all logic. Even worse is the army intent on killing him, and the strange group on his side aren't much better even if he is in love with one of them. His only hope of survival is the healing nectar of the amaranth._

_Pairings: Eventual LxLight and MelloxMatt (semexuke) See author's note at the bottom of the chapter._

_A/N: I shouldn't be starting a new fic. Do I care? Not in the slightest. I've recently been on a Death Note obsession-high so I had to write a fic for it. I like this idea, but we'll see if anyone else does. Help is requested/needed/begged for! See end of chapter for details!_

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"Ryuk." The voice was deadly calm.

"Yeah, what?" Just as calm. Laid back. Lazy.

"I have a question." A slight edge of ice crept into the voice.

"Yeah, what?" Same words, different inflection. Chuckles threatening to break through.

"What the _hell_ have you done to me?" Voice slightly rougher, wintery fury raging in the single sentence.

"I don't know (hyuk, hyuk) what you're talking (hyuk, hyuk, hyuk) about, Light!" The words were gasped out between the now-hysterical laughter that wracked the speaker.

Light Yagami gripped the edge of his bathroom sink so hard that his fingers threatened to break themselves if tightened any further. His teeth gave similar complaints as they were clenched together violently. His entire body was tenser than Ryuk had ever seen him, which amused the shinigami to no end. He swept his eyes over Light once more, bursting into another fit of laughter.

Gold-brown eyes glared out of Light's reflection in the mirror. His brown hair framed his pale, tight-lipped face. This was not what Ryuk laughed at. No, Ryuk's laughter was for Light's ears.

His furry, cat ears.

"You know very well what I'm talking about," he hissed, opening his mouth to reveal two small fangs where his canines had once been. His new ears laid themselves flat along his skull in accordance with his anger. His… tail… lashed from side to side behind him, further amusing the shinigami.

"I really… don't know… Light…" he gasped out, still chuckling. "When did… you get them…?"

"This morning," the brunet snapped, fed up with the being's constant laughter. There was nothing amusing about this situation at all. "I woke up and there they were!" He hissed in displeasure, holding up hands that now bore long, pointed claws. "How the hell am I going to hide these?"

"Why would you hide them?" Ryuk questioned, curiosity breaking through hilarity.

"I can't very well go out in public like this," he snorted. "Perhaps you haven't noticed, Ryuk, but humans _don't have tails_."

"You do."

"And I intend to find out why and how," the boy decided. "But until then, I've got to hide this somehow." He wandered back into his bedroom, looking preoccupied. Almost absently, he rummaged through his closet, coming up with a baseball cap, a pair of gloves, and a sweatshirt. He jammed the cap onto his head, hiding the ears, the gloves onto his hands, obscuring the claws, and wrapped his tail around his waist, donning the sweatshirt to hide the bulge. When he was done, he looked armed and ready for a snowstorm.

Unfortunately for Light, it was upwards of 90 degrees that day.

_This is ridiculous,_ he thought furiously to himself. _How could this have happened?_ He was tempted to think that it was all one long, vivid dream, but shoved that thought out of his head immediately. If notebooks that killed and shinigami existed, why couldn't people sprout ears and tails?

_Well, aside from the fact that it's physically impossible,_ he amended his last thought. As the teenager attended his classes that day, he ran through the last few days in his head, retracing his steps. He hadn't angered any old ladies or anything and gotten a curse laid on him, like in fairytales. He hadn't hung out near any radioactive, mutating waste, either. Bitten by strange animals? No. Absolutely nothing out of the ordinary had happened to him recently.

Unless, of course, you counted being Kira. But he'd been using the Death Note for a while now, and nothing like this had happened. If that was the trigger, wouldn't it have happened right away? He would have noticed if it was happening gradually…

Almost before Light knew it, he was on his way home, still deep in thought. It said much for his intelligence that he was able to go through an entire school day without even realizing it. He didn't even notice that Ryuk was chuckling again as he walked slowly, frowning at the ground.

He _did_ notice when a loud, blonde cannonball crashed into him, nearly sending him tumbling to the pavement.

"Oh, Light-kun, Misa-Misa is so happy to see you!" a high-pitched squeal hit Light's new, sensitive ears at a painful frequency. He hissed in pain, ears twitching beneath his hat.

"Eh?" Misa pulled away, to Light's immense relief. If she kept hanging on him like that, she might notice… "What is that under Light-kun's shirt?" …his tail. Damn.

"Nothing, Misa," he lied, making an attempt to smile before he remembered his fangs. He settled for a reassuring glance. Misa instantly forgot all about the strange thing she had felt wrapped around Light's waist and began to chatter with (at) him about her day. Behind her, the shinigami Rem stared at Light, unnerving him. Light nodded and pretended to listen to his 'girlfriend's' chatter until he was finally able to extricate himself from her hold and bid her a goodnight.

"How are you planning on hiding your new look from L?" Ryuk asked as he watched the retreating form of the model.

"I don't," he said shortly. "This doesn't change my plans for the world, you know. It is unfortunate, but it will not stop me, even if it is permanent." Here he paused to shudder a little at the thought of always having to hide and worry in case someone saw his… affliction. "Though I will do everything I can to get rid of it. First I have to figure out how it happened, and the cure will follow I am sure. In the meantime, I will talk to Rem and see if I can convince her to kill Ryuzaki, just as I was planning before."

"Oh," Ryuk shrugged. It didn't really matter to him. Though he did get a kick out of seeing Light jump every time a dog in someone's yard barked. The boy gritted his teeth and walked faster, eager to get home.

When he did finally reach home, the brunet hurried upstairs, calling a hasty greeting to his mother and sister, ignoring their queries as to why he was dressed that way. He locked himself in his bathroom and gratefully peeled off the heavy clothes, twitching his freed ears and tail after their long confinement.

He sighed at the thought of doing that every day for the rest of his life as he worked the kinks out of his cramped tail and prepared to take a shower and wash away the sweat that covered him. The boy cranked the knob and gratefully slipped under the stream of water.

It was then that he discovered exactly why cats lick themselves clean.

Hissing like a punctured balloon, Light leaped out of the shower, frantically shaking his head and limbs to get the water _off_. His mind didn't catch up with his actions until nearly a minute later, whereupon he found that he was scrubbing himself dry with his towel. The instant he realized what he had done, Light stood and cast away the towel in disgust. He was acting like an idiot.

The boy approached the shower again, but even sticking a single hand or foot in caused the same almost involuntary retreat. It reminded him of the time he had grabbed a piece of toast and accidentally brushed the toaster. He had snatched his hand back before the pain had even registered, instinctively. This was almost like that, except that the water wasn't _hurting_ him!

_Fine, then,_ he snarled at himself, cursing whatever twist of fate had changed him this way. _I'll just have to get clean some other way._ Baths proved just as taboo to his feline mind, even more so than the shower. Eventually, Light gave up. He wet a washcloth and used _that_ to get clean. Strangely, this seemed acceptable to whatever cat-instincts he apparently now possessed. He supposed it was the closest he would ever get to licking himself clean. Now _that_ was a terrifying thought.

Banishing it from his mind, Light tidied the now somewhat damp bathroom and darted across the hall back to his own bedroom, where he locked the door.

"Trouble with the shower, Light?" Ryuk asked innocently, munching on an apple from the stash Light kept in his room specifically for this purpose.

Light did not deign to respond, instead going straight to bed. There, he curled up into a ball and promptly fell asleep. Ryuk chuckled at the catlike position as he crunched down the apple core. Humans were interesting, sure, but cat-humans appeared to be just as fun. Or maybe that was just because it was Light.

Light awoke what seemed like only a moment later, but was actually three hours. At first, he lay still, unsure of what had woken him. His ears swiveled from side to side, listening. He nearly jumped out of his skin as a voice spoke, sounding loud in the quiet room.

"You can stop pretending to sleep, Kira, I know you're awake."

Light's head shot up, eyes narrowed to slits. Who was in his room in the middle of the night, and how did they know he was Kira? His cat's eyes glowed red in the darkness as he squinted.

It was a shinigami, but not one he'd seen before. (Though, admittedly, his experiences with shinigami were rather limited.) It was human in structure, only larger, and draped with black cloth white pants and white arm guards. An intricate gold helmet-like thing sat atop its skull-like face, held in place by a chinstrap of gold beads. All in all, it was pretty memorable.

"Long time no see, Dalil," Ryuk greeted it.

"Are you the one who did this to me?" Light hissed, momentarily forgetting what he was speaking to. A single glance from those empty eyes shut him up immediately.

"Hello, Ryuk," the shinigami, Dalil, replied. "No, it was not me who changed your appearance, Kira, but that is the reason for my visit. Only the King of Death has the power to do that to you, and it was he who sent me."

"Why not Nu or Jastin?" Ryuk wanted to know. He, too, clammed up at Dalil's skeleton glare.

"He could not spare Nu and Jastin was… occupied," she finally replied. Ryuk concentrated on stifling his chuckles at Dalil's blatant lie. Jastin clearly was too lazy to come so had sent her instead!

"In any case, I allowed you a day to get used to your new self, Kira," the shinigami turned back to Light. "But that day is up."

"And what happens now?" Light uncurled from his bed, flexing his claws even as his rational mind told him that if she wanted to kill him it wouldn't come to a fight: she would just write his name in her Death Note.

"Bakeneko have no place in this world," Dalil announced. Light blinked. Bakeneko? "So, we will send you to one more… suitable… for your new style."

"Why are you doing this to me?" Light's ears drooped. He knew there was no point in arguing, though he was angry that he couldn't sound properly impassive with his ears giving away all his emotions. He would have to work on that. "What have I done to you?"

"Well, you've killed hundreds of humans, for one thing," Ryuk pointed out. "And you plan to kill even more. I imagine the King's pretty unhappy about that, huh, Dalil? Hyuk, hyuk, hyuk."

"Yes, he is displeased with our dwindling supply of life force," Dalil nodded.

"But if you're going to send me to this… other world… why can't you just kill people from there to extend your lives even if there aren't many in this one?" Light desperately tried to change her mind, subconsciously inching further back on his bed.

"You don't think that we would do that if it were possible?" Dalil snapped. "It isn't, because of you." Without warning, the shinigami's claw shot forward and seized a handful of Light's hair and one of his ears. "You will go to that world, and one of you will die, we don't care which." She yanked the boy forward, causing a strangled yowl to escape his lips. Her other hand sank into the wall as if it weren't there and began to trace a circular motion, as if stirring soup. Slowly, that section of the wall began to swirl, the colors blending around and around like a kaleidoscope.

Light was so mesmerized by the colors that he all but forgot the pain in his ear and his fear of this 'other world' they were sending him to. He leaned forward, trying to pinpoint exact shades on the color wheel, which was beginning to seem basic and woefully incomplete.

Suddenly, the colors were right against his face. The claw tangled in his hair disappeared with one final shove, and he was tumbling head over heels through a rainbow of sounds, a cacophony of sensations. Scents never smelled, both pleasant and not, assaulted his sensitive nose. If he had to liken that trip to a human sensation, Light decided that it would be something along the lines of falling down a flight of steps in the dark. It had the same confusion, the same feeling of going somewhere you couldn't see, the same loss of control, and the same heart-stopping shock.

And, like falling down the stairs, when Light finally came to a halt, he was facedown on something hard and unyielding. Wild breaths tore his throat, and he shut his honey-colored eyes as the world spun around him, nausea threatening to rise.

When he finally worked up the composure to lift his face, he was confronted by the most surreal sight he'd seen since… well, five seconds ago in that portal. Except that this was real and solid and didn't change no matter how many times Light blinked and rubbed his eyes.

He most definitely wasn't in Kansas anymore, Toto.

_A/N: Okay, really. I have swallowed my pride and written something that is the antithesis of pretty much everything I write: It's edgy, it's got a plot (le gasp), and it's got yaoi. Also, OOCness is probably rampant. Thusly, I am humbly seeking a beta reader. If anyone reading this is interested in beta-ing this story, please contact me! Also, since I'm pretty conservative with romance even if it's not boyxboy, if someone wishes to help me write a smut scene (in which case the rating will go up) I am open to pretty much anything! Please contact me! Or at least review! _


	2. Warm Welcome

(A/N: Am I the only one who thought this

6

_Title: Amaranth and Rose_

_Author: YearOfTheKitty_

_Beta: Requested/needed/begged for. See author's note on first chapter_

_Disclaimer: I don't own Death Note, but Amaranths and Roses is mine. _

_Warnings: Um. Maybe slight cussing, and probably some kind of violence. Definite yaoi._

_Pairings: Eventual LxLight and MelloxMatt (semexuke) See author's note on first chapter._

_A/N: In case anyone cares, I based this Near off the older one in the post-series one-shot since I had to make him older to fit the plot. Also, I've probably mangled the legends of the bakeneko and nekomata beyond recognition, so I apologize and humbly blame wikipedia. Also, anyone who hasn't heard the song Amaranth by Nightwish needs to. Now. Go. The fic will be here when you get back. I mean it, that song is pure awesome made sound… -melts- It's also my inspiration for this fanfic._

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Light sat and gaped, all thoughts of anything except the sight before him long forgotten.

The teen knelt on the bank of a smooth, wide, silver river. On the other side, a city rose on tiers of rocky ridges that were not quite mountains, but close. The rising sun glittered on the reflective windows of the city, and the breeze brought the sounds of motors and the smell of gasoline to Light's ears and nose. But on the topmost ridge, marring the unremarkable scene, squatted a stone castle straight out of a cheap production of _Hamlet_. Birds circled the high turrets. An old sailing ship with three masts glided past Light on the river, its sails slack with the lack of wind and its powerful engines propelling it along sluggishly.

"What the hell?" he whispered quietly. "Where did they send me?" It was quite obviously another world, and Dalil had called it one more suitable for a bakeneko, whatever that was. So it was a place where half-cat people were normal? Light frowned. And what did 'one of you will die' mean? He had to kill somebody or be killed by them, that much was obvious, but the way she had worded it was confusing.

There was nothing to be gained by sitting here. Light stood, grimacing as he saw that he was still wearing pajamas. Thank God he slept in a t-shirt and slacks instead of anything more embarrassing. He cast around a little, looking for somewhere he could go besides the city. In every direction except the city, rocky ridge-mountains rose, blocking his view.

He set off along the riverbank, searching for some sort of bridge. Though he was loath to admit it, Light was scared. No, not scared… anxious. That was it. He was anxious about the kinds of people that would inhabit such an odd city. It didn't help that the shinigami was obviously hoping he would die here, which was a distinct possibility unless he figured out a way back quickly.

After several minutes of jogging, keeping pace with the motorized sailing ship on the river, Light caught sight of a road twisting its way towards the river. He stopped dead. He didn't know why he had expected the vehicles to be anything except the quickly-becoming-usual mix of ancient and modern, but what he saw shocked him nonetheless. Horseless and driverless carriages rolled along on tireless metal wheels, engines purring. Between these carriages weaved people mounted on various quadruped (was that a _wolf_?) and even biped (surely that one couldn't be an ostrich, could it?) animals, as well as motorcycles with no wheels that hovered inches above the ground.

Light nearly groaned aloud. Walking beside a regular road with regular cars might have been terrible in his condition, but at least he wouldn't have been able to see the drivers staring at him. Now as he hiked a few yards away from the road but parallel to it (no sidewalks or other pedestrians), Light was clearly able to see people gawping at him from the backs of their steeds. At first, he avoided their gazes self-consciously, but eventually he got used to it and found that staring back usually made them look away hastily. In this way, he was able to study the people of this… place for himself.

Well, it was a little less startling than the sight of the city, he could say that. Some people looked completely human. Some only had minor differences, such as pointed ears, or wings, or tails. Light was relieved to see several other cat-people, though to his puzzlement their tails were always unnaturally short, as if they'd been cut. A fashion trend, perhaps?

Other creatures were easily identifiable by myths: such as a pale man with fangs who simply had to be a vampire, or a beautiful girl seated atop a white stallion with a horn that was clearly a unicorn. Still others were strange things that he had no names for, like a man with eight octopus tentacles ringing his torso in place of arms.

And finally, he was brought to the ones that were just plain strange. Take for example the sunflower growing on top of a carriage that turned so Light could see that its center was made up of hundreds of tiny eyeballs. Or the child with the antlers of a deer and the spiked tail of some sort of dinosaur clad in samurai armor and seated atop a smilodon.

Light decided to stare at the ground in front of him to keep his head from exploding with the strangeness of it all. He was even more reluctant to reach the city now.

Of course, with his enhanced hearing he heard the hoofbeats long before the riders actually reached him. But with the road so close, Light wrongly assumed that they belonged to some particularly reckless motorists going towards the city. This opinion lasted until the hoofbeats suddenly encircled him as he was surrounded by a ring of horsemen. Traffic on the nearby road slowed, relief evident on the faces of all watchers.

But Light only had eyes for the seven or so loaded crossbows aimed at his chest from all angles.

"I didn't want to believe it was true," one of the horsemen grunted. Slowly, Light became aware that some of the ones around him weren't horsemen at all. "But there it is, clear as day," the centaur continued.

"Um, is there a problem?" Light cursed himself the moment the words left his lips. Of _course_ there was a problem, or they wouldn't be pointing their crossbows at him!

"Of _course_ there is," one of the ones who was actually a human on a horse snapped. "You're coming with us, bakeneko!"

"It's only a bakeneko?" one of the centaurs asked with relief. "Thank Kira for that." Light's ears shot up at the mention of Kira, and its obvious substitution for the word 'God'. There was Kira in this world? Who was it? Did they use the Death Note, as he did? Maybe he was the one the shinigami wanted him to kill…

"It's still only got one tail," the smallest centaur there reached forward and snagged Light's tail, yanking it out for all to see. "Though this one's dangerously close to splitting…" Light bit back a yowl of indignation, partially from a desire not to make any more undignified cat-noises, and partially from a desire not to get shot by seven twitchy centaurs. Or, five centaurs and two horsemen, anyway.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," he honestly told them. "I'm not a bakeneko, whatever that is."

"And I'm not a centaur," the one holding his tail told him seriously. His horsey half was snowy white, as was his head of curly hair. He reached up to twist a lock of it with one hand, releasing Light's tail as he did so, his crossbow never wavering in its aim. Strangely for what Light thought of centaurs (though he was fast losing faith in traditional myths) the young centaur wore a white shirt reminiscent of a pajama top.

"We'll take him to Lord Kira," the centaur who seemed to be in charge decided. Without another word, the circle of guards began trotting forward, forcing Light to jog in the center, prodded by the crossbows behind him. A quick scan of his captors revealed that they were clearly some sort of military organization. All the centaurs except the white one wore a kind of breastplate with the same insignia: a gothic-style letter K.

He also noticed that while the other centaurs and horsemen seemed to get along, there was palpable tension in the air whenever the young white one moved or spoke. Light filed this information away for a time when it could be useful, simultaneously racking his brains for any clue as to exactly what they were accusing him of. It had something to do with his tail, but what was so terrible about it he couldn't imagine. His mind instantly made the connection to the few cat-people he had seen on the road and their cut-short tails. Was it somehow a crime to have a long tail? That was ridiculous, but they seemed to be arresting him for it.

The white one had said his tail was dangerously close to splitting. What did that mean? Light noticed that today the tip brushed the very top of the grass beneath his bare feet, where he had been sure that it was several centimeters shorter yesterday. So it was growing, and when it got too long it would split…? Split into what, two tails? That sounded painful, but not particularly dangerous to anyone but himself.

His thoughts were interrupted by their sudden halt. They had reached a very modern-looking bridge across the river. Once again, there was no sidewalk or anywhere for them to walk alongside the road, so they were forced to merge into it.

Before he had realized what was happening, Light found himself yanked into the air by hands under his armpits and deposited onto the back of the white centaur. The other centaurs smirked at the white one, as if this were some sort of joke or insult. The white centaur merely shrugged and moved into the center of what had now become a line as the centaurs and horsemen merged into the traffic. Light knew that every centaur behind him—and probably in front of him, too—had their crossbows ready should he attempt to dismount and run.

Not that such a thought had even crossed his mind. Light considered himself an intellectual type more than a sporting one and, as such, had never ridden a horse in his life. The centaur's back was visibly more slender than the others guarding him, but it was still uncomfortably wide. And where was he supposed to hold on? Was he supposed to hug the guy's torso in front of him, like someone on a motorcycle? Well, no way was he going to do _that_. He settled for setting his hands just behind the join of human to horse and attempting to stabilize himself that way.

"Could you not dig your claws into my back?" the centaur requested over his shoulder.

"How else am I supposed to hold on?" Light hissed back.

"Fair enough," the centaur seemed amused by something, but made no further comment, even when Light drew blood when he stumbled in a pothole. Light wondered what this centaur was doing here. Not that he had the slightest clue what was going on, but the pale boy seemed out of place among the others. For one thing, he only seemed to be a teenager a little younger than Light where the others where all mature men. For another, the crossbow, while wielded expertly, looked out of place in his hands, as if he had been trained in its use but didn't use it much.

"What is your name?" Light asked suddenly.

"Near," the centaur never hesitated, but Light could tell it was a lie. He was, after all, arguably the best liar in Japan if not the world. His world, anyway. "What is yours?"

"Light," Light replied, omitting his last name since the centaur had only offered his first name as well. Unless he didn't have a last name, which was completely possible when you considered that he was a centaur. Light felt no qualms at all about giving out his real name. After all, what would they do with it, look him up? He didn't exist in this world. They would find nothing.

Crossing the bridge seemed to take forever. They were confined to the pace of the thick traffic, which slowed around them as people peered around to stare at Light and Near. Some were surprised, some disgusted, and some even openly laughed, pointing at the teenaged centaur. Near seemed to not notice them, placidly clip-clopping along with one finger twined in his curly hair.

Light didn't really car either until he noticed a carriage with its window rolled down. A cat-man inside was lifting up his small daughter and pointing at Light, blatantly pointing at him!

"…what happens if you don't cut your tail…" was all the brunet boy heard before his ears were overwhelmed by the loud braying of somebody's mule. When the mule finally shut up, he caught one more snippet: "…Kira… only nekomata…" before the carriage was too far ahead to hear any more.

Now he had a new word to ponder. Nekomata. It meant 'forked cat', which shed a new light on his splitting-tail conundrum. So according to what he knew, a bakeneko was a cat with a long tail and when it grew too long it split and became forked, and the bakeneko became a nekomata. There had been something else, too… 'Kira is the only nekomata'? Perhaps, though it still made no sense why he would be arrested for being a bakeneko.

Light and his centaur escort clip-clopped their way off of the bridge and away from the road. Here there were sidewalks, almost as wide as the road itself. Light made as if to slide off, but was stopped by a word from Near. The white centaur remained in the center even as it formed a circle around Light once more.

They broke into a canter that threatened to rattle Light's teeth right out of his skull, and his claws drew gouges down Near's back as he fought to stay seated. Near made no complaint except a faint wince.

Pedestrians hurried out of their way, reminding Light forcibly of sharks in a school of minnows. Their faces mirrored the general consensus as they saw Light: surprise, disgust, or laughter. Always one of the three. It was just plain rude.

Light became aware that their small 'procession' was winding its way up through the city towards the castle on the ridge. As they got closer, Light realized that while the structure was indeed made of stone, its roofs were aluminum. And there was something very wrong about the birds circling the towers…

"The phoenixes arrived while we were gone," Near remarked to no one in particular.

"They've been here since last night," another centaur growled at him. "You were too busy fooling around with those card towers of yours to notice."

"So it would seem," Near agreed impassively. Light rolled his eyes. Anyone with ears could hear that he had known very well when these phoenixes had arrived. His remark had been made in response to the confusion Light was annoyed to know must have been showing on his face when he noticed that the birds' wingspans were about the length of a decently-sized horse. He resolved to keep better check on his expressions in the future. After all, he wasn't some awe-struck tourist. He was Light Yagami, Kira, God of…

…no, that wasn't right. Here he wasn't Kira, wasn't god of anything. Someone else seemed to fill those roles in this twisted world. So he was just Light Yagami, excellent actor and visitor from another dimension. He could live with that for now.

Light was just beginning to wonder if he would ever recover use of his cramping legs again when they reached the castle. The two leaves of its massive steel double-doors opened smoothly at their approach with a whirr of hidden machinery. They trotted through the portal and into a kind of courtyard. Light nearly fell off the centaur at the sight that met his eyes.

The courtyard was an expanse of dirt leading up to the walls of the castle. To either side he could see smaller buildings that were probably stables judging by the smell. Directly ahead was a temporary-looking wooden platform on which sat a simple kind of throne. There were many beings scattered over the yard and on the platform itself, but what captured and held Light's attention was the being on the throne.

It was a cat-boy, the same age as Light and even wearing a suit similar to something Light would wear. In fact, this boy was Light's double in every way except for two things: his glowing red eyes, and his long, forked tail.

_So this is what Dalil meant,_ Light realized, speechless with shock as he confronted his own smirking face. _One of me will die._

_I've got to kill myself._


	3. Stop Me If You've Heard This One

_Title: Amaranth and Rose_

_Author: YearOfTheKitty_

_Beta: 8Maniacal.Laughter8 (Yay! XD)_

_Disclaimer: I don't own Death Note, but Amaranth and Rose is mine. _

_Warnings: Um. Maybe slight cussing, and probably some kind of violence. Definite yaoi._

_Pairings: Eventual LxLight and MelloxMatt (semexuke) See author's note on first chapter._

_A/N: If all goes well, this will be the first beta'd chapter on my profile! :3 Yay. Anyway, enjoy!_

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"So." Kira smirked dangerously, quickly covering the shock Light was sure he had felt moments before, "this is the bakeneko we were all so worried about?" Then, as if suddenly noticing something, "I didn't realize you had become a steed, Near."

"I have not," Near replied placidly. "But the others seemed to find it amusing. Get off now." He addressed this last bit to Light, who bristled slightly at the centaur's commanding tone before he remembered the crossbows that were no doubt still pointed at him. He flexed his claws on the boy's back with a vindictive sense of satisfaction, sliding awkwardly off to the side. Again, Near gave no indication that he felt anything. The young centaur merely nodded to him once before retreating to stand with the rest of the centaur guards, leaving Light alone in front of the platform.

"What is your name, bakeneko?" Kira purred, leaning forward a little. A smile worked it's way across his features - a brief smile that made a poor effort of concealing the true malice that he hid behind it.

"I owe you know answer," he spat.

Kira gestured carelessly at the surrounding guards. "Perhaps not, but I really think it would be in your best interests to answer that question."

"You _know_ my name." Light crossed his arms firmly, refusing to play this little game with himself. "You've clearly got the Death's Eyes." Kira hissed a little at that, glancing around furtively as if to make sure nobody else had heard. Of course, everyone had heard, but no one seemed to understand. Light smirked back at his double. Oh yes, this was going to be fun.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Kira informed him, a cold note weaving it's way into his tone. He narrowed his eyes slightly, as if to convey a silent warning.

"Yes, you know full well, but you don't want to admit it in public," Light replied in the same tone of voice. "Fine, then, I'll make it easier on you. We have the same name, Light Yagami."

"Who are you?" Kira dropped any pretense of civility, gripping the arms of his chair with twitching fingers that clearly itched to wrap themselves around Light's neck.

"I'm you. Have you spoken to Dalil recently?" A twitch and a curt nod confirmed this. "Good. Then I probably don't have to explain how I got here."

An eerily familiar voice joined the conversation. "Kiraaaa," the voice whined shrilly, "I don't understand what's going on!" Light ripped his gaze from his doppelganger to stare in horror at the pouting blonde cat girl -carbon copy of Misa, save for the ears. Her tail was cut short, though it was twitching ever so slightly.

"I, too, am confused," Near put in quietly. "Is this bakeneko some relation of yours?"

"No!" both Light and Kira snapped simultaneously, equally appalled at the thought.

"He is an impersonator," Kira decided. "Most likely sent as part of a plan by that traitor L."

"I'm not…!" Light began hotly, stung by the accusation that he was working for _anybody, _much less _L_. His words choked off at the sight of several hands tightening their grips on crossbows aimed at his chest.

Near spoke again. "You think he is working for L." It wasn't a question, it was a statement.

"Maybe," Kira shrugged offhandedly. "Either way, he's going to die here." He lifted his hand and signaled to the guards. "Fire at will, and do try not to get blood everywhere. I'm not partial to messy deaths."

Light's heart ceased to beat as dozens of crossbows were leveled. He considered, for the briefest moment, that he should try to run, but this scarcely seemed like a good course of action. His ears caught several soft _twang_s and he braced himself. This was it. What an ignoble way to die. Shot by centaurs. Oh, no, it couldn't be death in battle, or death by poison, it just had to be _centaurs_…

The wind picked up. Was he dead yet? He felt as if he was flying, and there was no pain, so he probably was. Except that his shirt was bunched up around his chest and throat, which was uncomfortable and which also made no sense.

"You still alive, kid?" a harsh voice interrupted his musings. What the…? Light opened eyes he hadn't realized that he had shut, becoming aware that he was soaring over the otherwordly city at the same time that his ears finally recognized the throbbing in his ears that he had mistaken for his own heartbeat as wings.

Light twisted in the grip of whatever it was that had him, everything feeling so unreal that it didn't even occur to him to be scared. He examined the huge, golden bird that was bearing him aloft away from his doom with a sense of detached curiosity. It closely resembled a mix between a swan and an eagle with its long graceful neck, compact body, deadly claws, and wickedly hooked beak. With every downbeat of its wings, a draft of dry, hot air buffeted Light and he could swear that he saw eddies of flames dancing on the tips of those shining feathers.

"I asked you a question!" the bird snarled at him, glaring out of sapphire blue eyes. "Are you stupid or something?"

"I'm probably a lot smarter than you," Light retorted. "I can't imagine he'd let you go after this stunt. Now you're in just as much trouble as I am."

"I suppose a simple 'thank you' was too much to hope for," the phoenix grumbled to himself. "Yeah, well, I wasn't exactly in _Lord Kira's_ good books before today anyway." Light fought a bizarre desire to laugh at the thought of being in Kira's 'good' book.

_I'm in shock,_ he noted distantly, as if the observation had nothing to do with him. _I hope I don't go into hysterics or anything so undignified. This is bad enough already._

"Why did you save me?" he asked after a moment. It was the closest he would ever come to gratitude.

"He said you were working for L, and Near did, too," the phoenix replied. "I want to know if that's true."

"Kind of," Light attempted a shrug, which proved impossible, owing to the claws tangled in his shirt. "It's complicated and you probably wouldn't believe me anyway." After a short pause, he went on, "You work for him, don't you? Near, too."

"What makes you think that?" The phoenix's voice didn't change at all, which clearly told Light that he'd been right.

"Well, just suspecting that I work for L wouldn't be a good enough for you to want to save me unless you were, too. Otherwise, you'd have just let me die. And Near was the only one in that entire hell-hole that didn't open fire as soon as Kira said 'jump'… Bastard," Light added as an afterthought. _I hate myself. I really do._

"You're smart," the bird grudgingly admitted. It was the closest he would ever come to an admission.

"So where are you taking me?" Light asked a while later. They had long since flown over the river, and now seemed to be going in a wide loop.

"I'm bringing you to L," the phoenix stated. "He'll know what's going on. And since you're probably condemned to death anyway, it probably won't make much of a difference." He paused. "Call me Mello."

"I'm Light."

"Well, sorry, Light," Mello began, not sounding sorry in the least, "but I can't have you seeing L's hideout, so…" In a lightning-fast move that barely altered the smooth rhythm of his wingbeats, the phoenix whipped his neck around to butt their skulls together violently. The boy's eyes rolled back and he fell limp in Mello's claws. Mello briefly wondered if this guy was worth the effort he'd wasted sneaking into Kira's castle in the first place.

But only briefly. Mello didn't doubt himself. He didn't make mistakes. So he continued on his way to L, bearing the unconscious bakeneko in his talons, and convinced that everything had gone exactly as planned.

xXxXxXxXxXx

Light was hungry. This was the first thing he became aware of. The second thing was the absence of the steady thrum of wingbeats. Instead, there was a low, hazy murmur of voices from somewhere nearby.

He considered the possibility that everything since he had woken up with cat ears had been a dream. This illusion was banished the next moment as he flicked his tongue over his teeth, nicking it a little on his fangs. At the same time, he felt his tail stir sluggishly. So it hadn't been a dream then. That was… not relieving exactly, but it was good to know that he hadn't come up with something so crazy by himself.

Light took inventory. The last thing he remembered was being carried away by Mello the phoenix, but he had been hit on the head and… blacked out. The splitting pain in his skull took this thought as an opportunity to make its presence known. Light nearly groaned aloud, biting it back at the last second. He didn't know where he was, and didn't want anyone in the room to know he had woken up until he felt ready to let them know. Right now he didn't feel up to _thinking_ too hard, much less _talking_ or _moving_.

So he took stock of the rest of himself. The rest of his body felt fine. He seemed to be lying on some sort of couch. This was clearly evident due to the fact that the couch was a good foot shorter than Light himself, giving him a clear idea as to the shape of the arms as well as serving to cut off all blood flow in his lower legs. Other than that, he could determine nothing about his surroundings.

_Well, here goes…_ He cautiously cracked open his eyes.

…and nearly swallowed his tongue in shock.

There, not two inches from his face, was a familiar pair of black-ringed, gunmetal-gray eyes. L.

"I see Light-kun is finally awake," L noted, drawing back a little so the boy could sit up. Light was tempted to pinch himself to test the dream theory a little more thoroughly. The L before him was the same as the L in his own world in every way, right down to the finger in his mouth as he examined Light with unnervingly wide eyes. He didn't know what he'd been expecting, but it most certainly wasn't this. He'd been braced for an L with wings or fangs or _some_ sort of feature that distinguished him from the L Light knew. There was nothing.

The building he now found himself in, however, was foreign to Light. The couch he was on faced an identical couch across a glass-topped table. In the background, he saw a bank of computer monitors and TV screens. The high arched ceiling flickered with the glow cast from them. It all seemed pretty fancy for someone who was supposedly a traitor.

Then again, this _was_ L he was dealing with.

"There is no need to be so alarmed," L told him.

"What makes you think I'm alarmed?" Light returned calmly, careful to make sure that his expression gave nothing away.

L merely glanced down. Light followed his gaze to his own tail, which was fluffed out in a clear attitude of fear. Light once more silently cursed his lack of control over his new body parts, forcing his tail to relax so that the fur lay flat once more.

"I didn't expect you to be so close, that's all," he informed L.

"Hmm," was the only reply.

"So… where am I?" Light glanced around again.

"My headquarters," L deadpanned.

"I knew that, I meant… never mind." Light gave up. He knew that L knew what he meant, so if he chose to evade it meant he didn't want to tell Light. And if L had wanted him to know where he was, he wouldn't have been knocked out for the trip. Speaking of which…

"What happened to Mello?" the boy asked, scanning the room yet again.

"He got bored, so he left," L shrugged. Light didn't care enough to pursue the matter. Silence fell. L stared at Light unblinkingly, nibbling on his thumb. Light once again searched in vain for any visible sign that this wasn't the same person he'd been planning to kill not two days ago.

"Light-kun is odd," L concluded finally, as if having suddenly hit upon a profound truth.

"Thanks." Light rolled his eyes, struck by the irony in _L_ telling _him_ he was odd.

"His tail is very long," he continued as if he hadn't heard, "which means he has been letting it grow for quite a while. Yet he seems unable to control it, which would imply that he isn't used to having a long tail. His ears follow the same pattern. While he is clearly used to controlling his expression, Light-kun's ears and tail give his thoughts away. An intriguing paradox." Silence descended once more.

"Is that why you brought me here, to tell me I make no sense?" Light's eyebrow twitched impatiently.

"I did not bring Light-kun anywhere," L corrected him. "Mello brought him here."

"You know what I mean." Light's eyebrow twitched again.

"Light-kun is impatient," L noted, tilting his head slightly to the side. "Very well, I will get to the point." He shuffled closer, bringing their faces together. Light resisted the urge to lean backwards, away from him. "I believe that Light-kun is working for Kira."

Light nearly broke down right there. Laughing, crying, screaming, he wasn't sure, but the urge to do _something_ in response to that absolutely ridiculous statement rose in him like a tsunami. He saw it coming, but was helpless to stop it.

Luckily for his pride, the urge manifested itself in one of the least humiliating and most satisfying way.

He leaned back and punched L straight across his jaw.

_A/N: I would just like to make it known here that the majority of this chapter was written during the Parade of Nations at the opening of the Olympics. Just thought it was interesting. Oh, and don't worry if things start off a little… rough. LxLight yaoi-ness shall prevail!_


	4. Rules Are Made To Be Broken

Title: Amaranth and Rose

Author: YearOfTheKitty

Beta: 8Maniacal.Laughter8 (Yay! XD)

Disclaimer: I don't own Death Note, but Amaranth and Rose is mine.

Warnings: Um. Maybe slight cussing, and probably some kind of violence. Definite yaoi.

Pairings: Eventual LxLight and MelloxMatt (semexuke) See author's note on first chapter.

A/N: Urk. I hate this chapter. There's not much action in it at all, just a lot of talking… But it's necessary to set the scene. The next one will be better, I promise.

xXxXxXxXxXx

Perhaps that had been a mistake. Light only had time for a brief flash of something resembling regret before L's foot slammed into his chin and sent him flying backwards. Before he had time to recover, L was right in front of him, aiming another kick at his midsection.

Light caught his foot before it hit, twisting in a way that sent him crashing to the floor, helped along by Light's fist. L sprang back up almost immediately. Each one seized a fistful of the other's shirt and cocked their free fist.

"Hmm, looks like we interrupted something," a drawling voice cut the fight off as both L and Light turned to look at the newcomer. It was a blond boy about Light's age dressed in black leather and munching on a chocolate bar. Behind him stood a redheaded boy whose orange-tinted goggles hid his eyes.

"Mello, Matt," L greeted them tersely, releasing his grip on Light's shirt and lowering his arm. Light copied him, examining the blond one with a new eye. Yes, his hair was the exact shade of the phoenix's feathers, and his blue eyes were the same as well.

"Don't mind us, keep fighting," Mello flapped a hand casually, striding into the room with the air of a king returning to his palace. He sprawled out on the couch and took a large bite out of his candy bar. The redhead, Matt, sat beside him in a somewhat more sedate manner, whipping out a handheld game system.

When it was clear that neither Light nor L intended to continue fighting, Mello sighed in disappointment and spoke. "So, what did he say that got you beating up on him, L?"

"Light-kun was the one who instigated the fight," L replied, seating himself on the opposite couch in his usual froglike way.

"Because you accused me of working for Kira," Light elaborated, half to Mello and half to L. "I assure you that is not the case."

"Light-kun could have said so instead of punching me," L informed him sulkily.

"Perhaps, but it wouldn't have been as effective," Light shrugged, sitting on the only empty seat beside L.

"I already told you, Kira was trying to kill him," Mello said to L. "It didn't look staged."

"Near said he thought it looked real, too," Matt spoke, startling Light a little. He looked completely absorbed in the game he was playing. Mello scowled for some reason.

"Even so, the possibility that this is all an act is not zero," L inclined his head slightly, acknowledging their opinions.

"I thought you had already established that I can't act," Light rolled his eyes, tail twitching in agitation.

"Even so," L repeated. "Would Light-kun care to tell me why he has not cut his tail?"

"I'm… new… around here," Light smirked a little at this understatement. "I didn't know I had to cut it." L cocked his head even further, looking innocently perplexed.

"But it is the law everywhere," L said.

"Well I didn't know that," Light shrugged, knowing that L could tell he wasn't lying.

"But surely Light-kun knows that he will become a nekomata if he leaves it like it is," L persisted. Light shrugged again.

"This is taking too long," Mello griped. He stood and leaned across the small table, jabbing his finger in Light's face. "Just tell us what you were doing before Kira's troops caught you."

"Walking," Light smirked. Mello's face twisted and he made as if to lunge at Light. Matt's hand shot out to grab the blond boy's collar, not taking his eyes off his game once, playing one-handed with the ease of practice.

"I was lost," Light elaborated after a short pause. "So I was heading for the city."

"But how did you get there? Where did you come from?" Mello demanded.

"Unless you tell us the specifics, we will assume you are working for Kira and will be forced to take drastic measures," L broke in matter-of-factly.

"I was dropped off," Light chose his words carefully lest his traitorous tail give him away. "The one who put me there told me that I wouldn't be able to go home until either I or Kira was dead."

"That's a tall order," Matt snorted.

"I can do it," Light asserted confidently.

"Then perhaps we can work together," L proposed. "Since Kira's death is our goal as well."

"Perfect," Light smiled. "Does that mean you'll finally tell me who you are?"

"I thought Light-kun knew. I am L," L told him. There was another pause.

"Yes, I knew that," Light resisted the urge to roll his eyes again.

"I suppose it stands to reason that if Light-kun doesn't even know the law that he wouldn't know our history," L mused, gnawing on his thumbnail. "Then I will tell him. Kira rose to power a few years ago after everyone ahead of him in line for the throne died, including his own father." Light flinched a little at that. He had killed his own father? Sure, he'd been prepared for the possibility, but he wouldn't have done it in cold blood like that… would he? L continued, "All accidental deaths of course, under various conditions and spread out over the course of two years. This ruled out foul play in most people's minds. I was, at the time, a freelance detective. I suspected that there was more to the story, even more so when it came out that Kira could kill people by inducing heart attacks. He continues to use this power to this day to kill those he deems unworthy of life, such as criminals. I and my followers were forced underground, as it were, to avoid being killed ourselves."

"I hate it when you call us that," Mello complained. "It's like we're your groupies or something."

"I apologize," L blinked. "I use it merely for lack of a better word. Perhaps 'successors' would be more accurate." Light's thoughts immediately darted to the L from his world. Did he, too, have successors? It stood to reason that if he, Misa, and L each had counterparts in this world that Mello, Matt, and Near existed in some form or another in his.

"In short, we are a secret group dedicated to overthrowing Kira," L summarized. "Though he labels us as traitors and has sent out a reward for our deaths."

"But Near…" Light frowned. Near had been right there with them, and Kira had seemed to know him.

"Ah, yes, Near," L sounded smug. "Kira knows that he is my successor, but he is helpless to do anything about it. He needs both a name and a face to kill, and he does not know Near's real name."

"Damn," Light growled. "You're wrong. He has the Death's Eyes, he can kill Near anytime he wants! He's just waiting to make you think he can't in the hopes that you'll reveal yourself thinking that it's safe."

"How could you know that?" Mello scowled. Matt looked up from his game, slightly shocked.

"He has the Death's Eyes," Light repeated. "With them you can see the name and lifespan of anyone floating above their heads, but to get them you have to give up half your own lifespan. Come on, L, you know I'm not lying! If you don't want him to die, you'd better contact him somehow, because if Kira knows that you saved me he'll know that I'm telling you this and he'll kill Near!"

"If what you're saying is true, then contacting him makes no difference because Kira already knows his name," Matt spoke again.

"Maybe, but there's a chance… how often does Near come in contact with Kira?"

"I believe that they have only met once before," L replied. "Twice if you count today."

"Then there's a good chance that Kira won't remember his name," Light stated. "Think about it. If you saw every name of every person all day long, you'd eventually stop paying attention to the names you don't know. So there's the chance that since he's allowed Near to live that he won't remember his name as long as they don't come in contact again."

L deliberated for a moment before speaking. "Matt, would you be so kind as to inform Near of what Light-kun has told us?" Matt rose without a word and wandered away. Light watched him rip a sheet of paper off of a notepad and begin to scrawl something on it in ballpoint pen.

"So these Death's Eyes," Mello began around a mouthful of chocolate, bringing Light's attention away from the strange actions of the redhead. "They're why his eyes glow all red? Freaky. It's, like, the only way I could tell you apart, you know, besides the weird clothes and tail."

"They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery," L began thoughtfully.

"I will punch you again, L, don't think I won't," Light hissed. "I am not imitating him."

"If Light-kun says so," L responded. "I would appreciate it if he would stop evading our questions. Mello says that he heard you say to Kira that you shared the same name and that you both had spoken to someone named Dalil. Would you like to explain these statements?"

"This is going to get absolutely nowhere until I tell you what's going on, isn't it?" Light sighed. L shook his head. "Alright, then, I'll tell you. Until yesterday I wasn't a bakeneko. As a matter of fact, I was completely human. Yesterday morning I woke up with ears, a tail, claws, and fangs. Dalil appeared and claimed that she had done it because she was sick of Kira killing so many people. She told me that she didn't care which one of us died as long as one of us did die and she dropped me off where Near found me."

"Why would she make such an unreasonable demand of Light-kun?" L cocked his head again.

"She didn't say it in so many words," Light shrugged. "She said that one of me would die, so I assumed she meant Kira when I saw how alike we were. The name thing was a guess, and I was right."

"Sucks to be you," Mello summarized.

"Thank you, I had already come to that conclusion myself," Light sighed. "So, can I help you take him out or what? I don't know if there's a time limit to this, but it doesn't seem likely that she'd just let me hang out while he's still killing people."

"No, that does not seem likely," L agreed, shoving aside his remaining questions for now. "You may help. You have already proven to be a valuable source of knowledge as to Kira's methods."

There was a short pause. The only sound was a rustling noise from Matt, who had produced what appeared to be a dodo bird from seemingly nowhere and was taping the sheet of paper he had been writing on to its leg. As Light watched curiously, the dodo cooed once and vanished with a soft _pop_, leaving behind a single feather. No one seemed surprised by this except Light, who covered it quickly. He dragged his thoughts away from inconsequential matters like extinct birds that disappeared and back to ones that concerned him, like doppelgangers who could kill anyone they chose.

Suddenly, something occurred to Light. Something so glaringly obvious that he felt like strangling himself for overlooking.

Kira knew his name. Kira knew that one of them had to die. Kira had seen his face.

Kira had a Death Note.

"Damn it!" he leaped to his feet, again unsure of his own intentions. L and Mello both gaped at him, startled at his outburst.

"Light-kun, what…" L began. He was cut off, eyes growing wide, as something melted out of the wall behind Mello. Light stared, too, and Mello turned to look.

"Greetings, Kira," Dalil said.

"Don't call me that," Light hissed.

"Why not? You and he are the same," Dalil replied. Light was keenly aware of the double meaning, but grateful that she worded it so as not to tell L what he'd been hiding.

"Why are you here?" he demanded. "Haven't you had your fun?"

"I was listening to your conversation and I came to clarify a few points," Dalil told him. "The game is no fun if the players don't know the rules. First: you do, indeed, have a time limit. You have exactly one month before I simply kill both of you. Second: I have made it so your double cannot simply kill you in his usual way. Otherwise the game would be short and not fun at all. The same does not go for your companions, however," the shinigami gestured to L, Mello, and Matt. "And this last one is not a rule, but I do advise it. If I were you, I would find the amaranth before you become a nekomata. Otherwise, there is no going home. Good luck." She turned and melted back into the wall, leaving the room's occupants speechless.

"What is the amaranth?" Light broke the silence by asking.

"A flower," L replied quickly. "It is said to grow in the mountains, where it never dies. Also, its nectar is purported to have healing properties."

"And what happens when I become a nekomata, exactly?"

"Light-kun's tail will split and become forked. He will gain tremendous strength and shapeshifting abilities. And rumor has it that he will also go insane," L added casually. "Of course, Light-kun will also become a match for Kira, which is why it all nekos' tails are cut. We assumed that becoming a nekomata gave one the ability to kill with a name and face, though perhaps, given recent events, this is false."

"I need to find this amaranth, then," Light decided. "Before that happens."

"You cannot," L's face hardened. "I will not allow Light-kun to leave here, not after he has seen us."

"But my tail is growing longer every day," Light argued. "I don't want to go insane!"

"There is only a 50 percent chance of going insane," L made an attempt to sound reassuring and failed miserably. "There is a chance Light-kun will retain his mind. Besides, if Light-kun becomes a nekomata whether he is sane or not we may still be able to use him to bring down Kira."

"You…!" Light choked on his fury. "You bastard…!"

"Near's on his way here now," Matt interrupted, plopping onto the couch again, a dodo bird on his shoulder and a sheet of paper clutched in his hand. The handwriting that covered it was smaller and neater than Matt's had been. "He says that Kira got pissed when Mello snatched away pajama-boy here. He was acting really weird for a while, and then he sent out a bunch of his goons into the mountains. We don't know why."

"The amaranth," L and Light exclaimed at the same time. Though perhaps 'exclaimed' was too strong of a word for L's monotone observation.

"Damn it, L, you've got to let me get it before he does!" Light snarled. "I want to go home!"

L thought. He stared at the ceiling and chewed on his thumb and thought. Light waited, tail lashing back and forth with impatience and anger, even as he thought of ways to escape if L refused to let him leave. That moment seemed to stretch on for hours, though Light felt disgust for having to stoop to such a cliché statement. He could no better phrase the hyperawareness of every single second that ticked by as the strange man regarded the roof in consideration.

"I will allow Light-kun to pursue the amaranth," L finally decided. Light exhaled a breath (it was not relief he felt, not at all) and stilled his tail. Mello, on the other hand, sprang to his feet, furious.

"We can't!" the blond shouted. "How do we know he'll come back after he's found the damn flower? We need him to take out Kira!"

"He will come back," L asserted. Light nearly smirked at his naïveté before his next statement crushed his humor.

"He will come back because we are going with him."

The dodo bird cooed and pooped on the couch.


	5. Good Kitty

Title: Amaranth and Rose

_Author: YearOfTheKitty_

_Beta: 8Maniacal.Laughter8 (Yay! XD)_

_Disclaimer: I don't own Death Note, but Amaranth and Rose is mine. _

_Warnings: Um. Maybe slight cussing, and probably some kind of violence. Definite yaoi._

_Pairings: Eventual LxLight and MelloxMatt_

_A/N: In which OOC-ness abounds! XP And you finally find out what Matt is. The title of the story should make a little more sense after this chapter, too. It was fun to write, so I hope you all like it, too. Remember to review!_

xXxXxXxXxXx

Mello was smirking at him, Light could tell. He could _feel_ the blond phoenix's amused stare drilling into the back of his head. He could _hear_ it: a never-ending attack of the silent giggles, sounding much like it had when L had first suggested this ridiculous idea.

Well, he hadn't suggested it. That implied that Light had had a choice in the matter.

He had actually welcomed the idea of having some help finding this so-called healing flower, mostly since he didn't even know where it was or what it looked like. That hadn't been the problem. The problem had come when Mello had complained that Light could still sneak away in the night or lead them into a trap.

That had been when L whipped out the handcuffs.

Light glared at the offending circle of metal around his wrist. His baleful gaze followed the six-foot-long chain to its other end, clamped securely on L's wrist.

"Is there a problem, Light-kun?" L questioned innocently.

"Yes, there is a problem, L," Light snapped. "The handcuffs are not necessary at all. The only purpose they are serving is to piss me off."

"Shut up and keep walking," Mello ordered. "We won't get anywhere if you stop every two yards to whine."

"We aren't getting anywhere anyway!" Light countered, his point proven as he and L were forced to stop when the chain between them snagged on yet _another_ bush. The four of them were trekking through the ridge-mountains that Light had seen before surrounding the city. He had been blindfolded for the first half of the journey, which had slowed their speed to a crawl but had served to make sure that he had absolutely no idea where L's hideout was.

"It would be so much faster if I flew," Mello hinted, making no attempt to help as the two boys struggled to unsnarl the chain.

"While it would be faster for you, it would not improve our speed in the least," L told him for the fifth time that day. "And there is every possibility that Kira's spies have been instructed to look for a white centaur and a gold phoenix after yours and Near's spectacular identity leak this morning."

"Are we going anywhere near a river?" Matt broke in, suddenly sounding anxious. "I haven't been swimming in so long…"

"Shut up and smoke," Mello rolled his eyes. "We'll be sure to let you know the moment we stumble across a puddle big enough for you to drown yourself in." Matt muttered something inaudible, taking the blond's advice and bringing out a cigarette and a lighter. He seemed to calm down after a few drags.

"What are you, anyway?" Light asked, bored out of his mind.

"Selkie," the redhead mumbled.

"His goggles' straps are made of his sealskin," Mello added, reaching out to snap his friend's goggles on the bridge of his nose. "Gross, huh?"

"It keeps maniacs like you from taking off with them," Matt retorted. "Ass." Mello merely grinned.

"You know you love it."

"Would you two hurry it up back there?" Light called from several yards ahead. "God, and you were calling _me_ slow!" Mello growled inarticulately and picked up his pace, determined as always not to be last. Matt trudged along behind him, flicking ash off the end of his cigarette and generally doing his best to ignore the constant bickering in front of him.

They had only gone a few more yards when Light stopped suddenly, creating a scene straight out of a Saturday morning cartoon as Mello smacked into him and Matt smacked into _him_ and everyone fell over in a heap of limbs, dragging L down with them via handcuffs.

"What the _hell_…!" Mello spat out a mouthful of somebody's shirt to swear vividly in another language.

"I hear hoofbeats," Light interrupted him, vaguely wondering exactly what it was that was pressing into the small of his back. "Someone's following us."

"Why didn't you goddamn well say so?" Mello snarled, shoving someone off of his legs (it turned out to be Matt) so he could climb to his feet. "Quick, get behind a rock or something!"

"I don't even know where they're coming from!" Light protested, also struggling to his feet. At the exact moment he finally found his footing, L yanked on the chain and sent him toppling back into a patch of vegetation.

"What was that for?!" Light hissed.

"Hide, Light-kun," was L's reply. "It might be Kira's troops." Light grumbled but sank lower into the bush he had landed in, thanking whatever gods were out there that it wasn't poison ivy or something equally unpleasant. Matt, Mello, and L concealed themselves behind nearby piles of rubble as well, looking a little more practiced at it than Light.

They all held their breath as the hoofbeats grew loud enough for even L's human ears to hear. In a matter of moments, something large and hoofed swerved around an outcropping of rock, coming to a clattering halt a little ways away. The centaur's human torso twisted around so that his wide, dark eyes could stare at Light.

"Why are you sitting in a poison ivy bush?" Near asked. Light shot to his feet as if he'd been burned, letting loose a stream of curses to rival Mello's vocabulary.

"You dumbass!" Mello also jumped out of his hiding place, intent on homicide and carefully memorizing a few unfamiliar words for later use. "It was only Near!"

"'Only Near'?" the white centaur repeated curiously.

"Light-kun thought you might be one of Kira's troops following us," L explained.

"You said that, not me!" Light protested, dodging a wild punch thrown by Mello at his face. "Why is everything my fault?"

"It's nice not to be the scapegoat anymore," Matt remarked.

"I was under the impression that time was of the essence," Near broke in, cutting off another argument-in-the-making. "Perhaps we should keep moving?" He held out his hand to L. Light glanced at him, confused.

"Our progress is hindered by these handcuffs," L explained. He seemed to be doing a lot of that lately. "Thusly we would move faster if we were to ride Near. I have informed him of the situation, and he is willing to put aside his pride in this instance. Now stop stalling and climb on, Light-kun." With this said, the detective took Near's proffered hand and used it to hoist himself up onto the centaur's back. Light was yanked almost right into Near's side by the sudden shortening of the chain. Growling under his breath, he reached up and dug his claws in, hauling himself up behind L.

This presented a problem in and of itself. Now that he was seated behind L, he had nowhere to hold on like he had on his last 'ride'. L had wrapped his arms loosely around Near's midsection quite casually, and neither of them seemed bothered by it. Then again, they seemed to be close friends despite the age difference. And Light was _not_ going to _hug_ L no matter _what_ was happening.

This conviction was tested a moment later as Near set off at a bouncy trot, nearly unseating Light. He reached out for something to hold onto and, predictably, that something turned out to be L. Before he realized what was going on, Near was galloping through the mountains at an easy lope, Matt and Mello were keeping pace beside them, and Light had his arms firmly secured around L's waist.

"Hold on tight, Light-kun," L's voice drifted back to him, laced with mischief. "If Light-kun falls, he will take me with him."

"Screw you," Light mumbled, resting his forehead on L's back. Why not? It wasn't like he wasn't already pressed up against him. And at this close range, his newly sensitive nose was overwhelmed with the delicious scent of strawberries that seemed to cling to the man.

xXxXxXxXxXx

"Can I _please_ go swimming now?" Matt nearly begged some time later. They had stopped for the night in a sandy hollow. Somewhere nearby the sound of a stream burbling cheerfully over the rocks seemed to mock the redheaded selkie.

"Patience," L told him. "We have to wait until Mello comes back. Better safe than sorry."

Mello had left some time ago with instructions to scout around a bit to make certain they hadn't been followed by anyone but Near. Light had watched the blond phoenix avidly, curious as to how he changed from a human to a bird. Mello had noticed him looking and smirked.

…And spontaneously combusted.

Flames had licked their way up the boy from his boots to his hair, lighting him up like a torch before Light had time to do anything other than gape stupidly. A moment later, when Mello's form had been blurred to a mere black shape in the fire, the flames spread out horizontally, in the shape of wings. A quick flap had dispersed most of the fire, revealing the gigantic, golden swan-eagle bird where Mello had stood. It had winked at Light before taking flight, the downdraft from its wings scattering what was left of the flames and a cloud of white and black ashes.

So now Light sat on a painfully pointed rock, his body aching from so much horseback riding, his pride aching from being made to hug L, his head aching from listening to Matt whine every five seconds about how much he wanted to swim, and completely covered in soot that was irritating the rashes forming on his arms and legs. Oh, yes, and he was still wearing his pajamas.

At least it wasn't raining.

As if magically summoned by L's words, Mello swooped out of the sky a moment later. The bird perched on a tall rock and began to preen himself, looking smug.

"The coast's clear," he reported. "No one within miles. We can build a fire and go swimming now."

"Thank you, Mello," L's voice was nearly lost in Matt's whoop of joy. The selkie raced off in the direction of the stream, heedless of L's shouts that it still wasn't safe to go alone. L followed with a sigh when he realized he was being ignored, pulling Light behind him.

"Why isn't it safe to go alone?" he asked L. "Mello said there was no one within miles."

"Surely Light-kun does not think that Mello included wild animals in his assessment," L eyed the brunet in affected disbelief. "Seals are not built for fighting off wolves."

"Alright, point taken," Light reluctantly agreed. "How does he change into a seal?"

"Light-kun has never heard of selkies?"

"I know they're seal people, but I've never met one," Light shrugged, hoping this was a reasonable answer.

"Watch and see," L pointed. They had reached the stream, though upon closer inspection it was probably too big to be labeled as such. It was more than deep enough to swim in.

On the bank, Matt eagerly tore off his goggles. He unclipped something in the back of the strap, unfolding it bigger and bigger until Light swore that something so large could never be folded into such a thin strip. After a moment, Matt held a kind of hooded cloak with goggle lenses dangling off the hood's edge.

The selkie donned the sealskin with a practiced twirl, sending the material spinning around and around his body until he was completely wrapped before toppling forward into the water awkwardly. After an anxious moment, a sleek, dark head topped by orange-tinted goggles broke the surface of the stream. Matt barked laughingly, now completely a seal.

"The goggles help us tell him apart from other selkies or regular seals when we visit the ocean," L commented, seemingly addressing the darkening sky around the index finger in his mouth.

"I'll bet they do," Light answered absently, his eyes riveted on the goggled seal frolicking in the water. He looked so carefree and playful. Surely this wasn't the closemouthed gamer that he had been traveling with? His personality seemed to have completely changed along with his physical appearance.

"That's enough now, Matt," L called. "We must return to the others."

"No!" Matt refused. Light supposed that he shouldn't be surprised. After all, Mello had spoken on several occasions as an avian. "Come play with me!"

"We cannot swim while chained together," L patiently explained. Light shuddered at the thought of swimming, suddenly deciding that maybe the chain wasn't such a bad idea after all.

_What am I thinking? It's a horrible idea!_ He mentally slapped himself. _I'm just glad for the excuse not to swim, that's all._

"I'll catch some fish for us to eat!" Matt bargained.

"Fine, but do not eat them all yourself," L gave in. He and Light sat on the ground, resigned to wait while the selkie took his time about catching them some dinner.

"Hey, L," Light broke the silence, "what does this amaranth we're looking for look like?"

"I do not know," L replied. "I have never seen it. They say that it is shaped like a star, and its petals are red, almost like a lily crossed with a daffodil."

"Sounds strange," Light murmured. "I expected it to be more… unique."

"It is very unique," L surprised him by arguing. "Its everyday appearance is just what makes it beautiful. It seems to be nothing more than a regular flower, but while other flowers, such as, say, roses, die quickly, the amaranth lives on untouched."

"Which do you think is better," Light asked, "real beauty that dies quickly, or imagined beauty that lasts forever?"

"Imagined is a harsh word, Light-kun," L frowned. "It is more… hidden beauty, or disguised beauty than 'imagined'."

"I prefer roses myself," Light shrugged. "Even if they die quickly, their beauty is not false like the amaranth's."

"Beauty is in the eye of the beholder," L argued. "I'm sure there are people out there who do not like roses at all."

"Maybe," Light was unconvinced. He fell silent, thinking over their conversation.

It was a metaphor, he realized, for many things. Fleeting perfection versus lasting mediocrity. Of course, the first thing that jumped into his mind at the word 'perfection' was his justice as Kira.

He thought about that more deeply. The metaphor fit perfectly. His justice, which was flawless, versus L's justice, which seemed perfect from a distance, but up close proved to be no more special than a dandelion. And yet it was L's justice that was fated to last forever, while Light's would die when he did.

But, Light thought, the number of roses far outweighed the number of amaranths. Light had many supporters who thought as he did, and when he died he would leave it to another like-minded individual to carry on his legacy. Whereas there was only one L. When he died, the flower of his justice would wither away.

Light smirked to himself. The perfect metaphor, indeed. If only L knew how fitting it was.

"Surely you must have caught enough fish by now, Matt," L called out to the water. "Come back to shore." A dark head once more broke the surface of the water.

"Mmff!" Matt's reply was muffled by what proved to be a mouthful of silver fish as he swam closer. The seal hauled himself out of the water with his flippers, scooting across the ground with a slithering sound. The chained boys followed him back to their campsite, where Mello, human once more, had lit a fire with which to cook the fish. In the light, Light could see that the seal's pelt was not brown like he had assumed in the dark, but a deep wine red color only a few shades darker than his hair color as a human.

"Ugh, don't drip on me!" Mello's shout cut through the cat-boy's musing. "Get away from me before I club you!" Matt barked with laughter and rolled away from the kick the phoenix aimed at his head. Near calmly picked up a bundle of sticks he had gathered and began to spear Matt's catch on them.

Before long, the fish were roasting merrily by the fire. The delicious smell entered Light's nostrils and curled itself around his brain, rendering rational thought impossible.

"Light-kun is drooling," L noted.

"Fish…" Light moaned, inching closer to the fire and swiping his tongue over his lips.

"Great, next he's going to be playing with our shoelaces or using Near as a scratching post or something," Mello groaned. "Hey, wait, that's not such a bad idea…"

"Fish…" Light agreed.

"I think they're cooked," L quickly divided the food evenly amongst everyone except Matt, who had already eaten in the stream. Struck by inspiration, he dangled Light's portion above his head. Light strained upwards, the irresistible smell taking over his head.

"Make him do a trick or something!" Mello suggested.

"That would be cruel," L said, a crooked smile playing around his lips despite his words. "Do you want the fish, Light-kun?"

"Fish… yes…" Light moaned, still straining to reach it. If he had been thinking clearly he might have been surprised that L was actually a bit taller than him when he wasn't slouching, but as it was that fact didn't even register.

"Alright then," L relented, giving him his fish with a pat on the head. "Good kitty." Light tore into the fish ravenously. A purr worked its way out of somewhere in his chest. L chuckled to himself and settled down to eat his own fish.

Before long, Mello finished eating. With a huge yawn, he burst into flames that quickly died, leaving him perched on the rock with his head tucked under his wing to sleep. Matt leaned on his friend's feathery side, quickly descending into loud snores. Near slept standing up, his human torso slumped forward a bit. Soon only L was still awake, crouched by the dying fire. He wished they had brought some water for him to douse it with. Just because no one was here now didn't mean no one could see the light and stumble across them while everyone was sleeping. And it ruined L's night vision by 63 percent.

His eyes swept across their rocky surroundings again, finding nothing unusual. His gaze settled on the bakeneko chained to his wrist. Light was curled up in a ball, sleeping so deeply that his chest barely moved when he breathed. His normally animated ears and tail lay still, for once giving no clues as to what he was thinking. L wondered if the amaranth's nectar would take them away like Light seemed to think it would. The nectar was supposed to heal people, not change them, but according to Light he had originally been a human.

L hoped the nectar turned him back. He didn't want all the effort he was putting into this to go to waste. Especially if it turned out that Light couldn't help them kill Kira at all. Not once, L had noticed, had Light made reference to Kira's killings except to say that Dalil didn't like them. He hadn't once said that _he_ didn't agree with them, or that they had any part in Light's desire to kill Kira. This led L to believe that either the boy was working for Kira as he had originally thought, or that Light was a Kira supporter.

Either way, Light was dangerous. Not to mention his tail, which was growing longer by the day and would soon split in two. L didn't want that to happen while they were out here in the wilderness and especially not while he was handcuffed to him. That was it. He didn't want to be mauled by an insane nekomata. That was why he didn't move when Light shifted against him in his sleep. That was why he dropped a hand to the boy's head and softly scratched his ears. He had to live with the boy after all.

"Good kitty."

xXxXxXxXxXx

_Odd. This story seems to be my most popular yet, and it's also the shortest one on my profile… I should write more Death Note, I guess. Or more yaoi. Or both. Yes, definitely both…_


	6. Losing The Battle AND The War

_(__Title: Amaranth and Rose_

_Author: YearOfTheKitty_

_Beta: 8Maniacal.Laughter8 (Yay! XD)_

_Disclaimer: I don't own Death Note, but Amaranth and Rose is mine. _

_Warnings: Um. Maybe slight cussing, and probably some kind of violence. Definite yaoi._

_Pairings: Eventual LxLight and MelloxMatt_

_A/N: Some reviewers have asked me this, so I will address it now: The yaoi is impending, but it will be gradual. After all, in this timeline Light had been plotting to kill L in a painful manner not three days ago. But don't worry, it will happen. Just more realistically. Oh, and the MelloxMatt is going to be really minor. It will be there, just not the focus of this story. Thank you for your time and patience: here is the chapter._

xXxXxXxXxXx

"Is Light-kun still upset with me?"

"…" Light's response to that question was to dig his claws into L's chest.

"I do not know what I have done to merit this level of animosity," L protested, wincing.

"You know damn well what you did!" Light burst out, unable to maintain his frosty silence any longer in the face of such blatant lies.

"I did nothing," L disagreed. "Unless Light-kun is referring to last night, when he utterly degraded himself over a few fish?" The claws dug in deeper, joined by an inarticulate growl of fury. "That was Light-kun's own fault, not mine! I did not make him moan and purr and humiliate himself."

"You encouraged it," Light snarled.

"You did," Near agreed, suddenly joining the conversation.

"Et tu, Near?" L cried dramatically. "Is no one on my side?"

"It was a statement of fact, not opinion," Near defended himself. "There is a high probability that if you had not withheld Light's fish, he would not have been so humiliated."

"Thanks," Light rolled his eyes. "In hindsight I was an idiot for not expecting something like that from you, L. And I'm not entirely surprised by _your_ involvement," Light aimed a venomous glare at Mello. "Though I'm hurt neither of _you_," here the glare went to Matt and Near, "stopped them!"

"I don't see what you're so upset about," Mello broke in. "It was only a few fish."

"I'm not a _cat_!" Light snapped. "Do you see me throwing birdseed at you? Trying to get you to say 'Mello wants a cracker'?"

"Perhaps it is time for a new topic of conversation," L wisely interceded as the look in Mello's eyes became positively maniacal.

"Hmph," Light subsided, also catching the look in the phoenix's eye. "So, L, do you have any idea where we're going, or are we wandering around the mountains hoping we'll stumble across it?"

"At the moment I am slightly lost," L admitted. "But not to worry, Light-kun. I have a foolproof plan for getting us back on track."

"And what's that?" Light questioned, an inexplicable feeling of foreboding creeping over him.

"Mello will fly above us and locate the squad Kira has sent after the amaranth," L began. "And when he has found them, we will follow them. We will allow them to locate the amaranth for us, and once they have, we will steal it from them on their way back to Tokyo."

"Tokyo?" Light repeated, shocked. "That's the city we were in? _Tokyo_?"

"I believe that is what I said, Light-kun," L answered testily. "I am not surprised that Light-kun's geographic knowledge is as poor as his historical knowledge."

"Yeah, but I didn't expect there to be an entire _river_ that doesn't exist…" Light muttered, so quietly that he could barely hear himself.

"Mello, did you hear the plan?" L called to the jogging blond.

"Yep," Mello grinned, his frustration still apparent, manifesting itself in bitter sarcasm. "Hey, _Near_, I hope you have fun playing pony while I go do the _real_ work." A short flurry of flames later, the golden phoenix winged his way high into the air, searching. Matt's nostrils were filled with the smell of smoke, which prompted him to pull out a cigarette.

"…hmm…" the selkie sadly inspected the contents of his pocket. He only had half a pack of cigs left. That probably wouldn't last him for as long as it would take to return to civilization where he could buy more…

"L, how long are we planning on spending chasing after this flower?" he asked. The words themselves had no bite to them, courtesy of the mellowing effect of his nicotine fix, but might have had that potential under different circumstances. "I mean, why are we knowingly risking our lives for some pansy that we don't even need?"

_That has got to be the most I've heard him say at once,_ Light thought to himself. Then the redhead's words caught up with him.

"Was pansy used in a literal or figurative sense in that sentence?" the bakeneko's voice grew low and silky. "Think carefully before you answer."

"It was meant to have a double meaning," Matt told him. "Because we really don't need you or your flower."

"This is the biggest lead we've had in… well, quite a long time," L headed off the potential argument. "Light-kun's knowledge of Kira's inner workings could prove invaluable to our cause."

"So why aren't we back at headquarters questioning him?" Matt demanded, flicking a bit of ash off the end of his cigarette.

"If he goes insane, we will no longer be able to pick his brains," L reasoned. "It is a backup plan, if you will. If the situation should get out of hand, we would be able to dose him with nectar and change him back. I do not intend to let him anywhere near the amaranth until our plan has been enacted, no matter the outcome."

"_Thanks_, L, I'm glad you think so much of me," Light's voice startled L out of his calculations. He had almost forgotten that the subject of their conversation was sitting astride Near right behind him, his claws digging painfully into L's abdomen, his sarcastic tone layered with concealed hurt…

And that was _not_ guilt L was feeling. No, it most certainly was not. All of L's decisions were for the greater good, and were always the right course of action. His conviction of his own rightness was a lot like Mello's in that respect. So it was therefore impossible for L to be feeling any kind of remorse for his actions.

Even if Light's continued silence hurt him more than the claws in his sides all the rest of that day.

xXxXxXxXxXx

It had been three days. Mello had found Kira's troops relatively easily, and their small group had been following them at a distance for two of those three days. It was difficult to match their pace to that of their quarry, and Mello was pissed that L wouldn't let him fly up to check their position.

"They would surely notice if a golden phoenix started following them," was L's, admittedly logical, opinion. Mello saw the sense in it, but still sulked furiously. He bragged about having found Kira's squad every chance he got, poking fun at Near constantly for acting like a beast of burden. His foul mood was not helped at all by the fact that he had run out of chocolate at about the same time Matt had run out of cigarettes the previous day.

L did nothing to quell his successor's malicious behavior. He, too, felt strange and out of sorts due to a lack of cake or other sugary food items. Perhaps that accounted for the strange way he had been acting recently.

Every night as Light curled up beside him to sleep, L found himself stroking the bakeneko's hair or scratching his ears and muttering inane things like he had done on the night of the fish incident. Invariably, Light would start to purr in his sleep, cuddle closer to the older boy, and even curl his tail around L's feet! Fur between his toes, L decided, was a strangely pleasant feeling, made even stranger when you considered how he usually felt about things on his feet.

But that was at night. During the day, L found himself relishing the warmth radiating from Light's body pressed up against his back. He caught his mind wandering to the boy behind him when it should have been focused on Kira or the amaranth or one of the thousands of other, more important things going on.

And, somehow, here was _again_ thinking about him! L just couldn't win.

"Ah," the sound came from behind L, ghosting over the back of his neck and raising goosebumps on his arms. It had been a low exhalation, almost a gasp and almost a grunt.

"Is something the matter, Light-kun?" L queried.

"My tail…" Light grunted again. "Ah! I think it's… starting to split…"

"Near, stop," L ordered. The white centaur did as told, craning his neck in an attempt to look at his own back. Matt and Mello looked on as well, as Light curled his tail up and around for L's inspection. The human detective did so, running his long fingers lightly over the tip.

"I don't see anything," Mello snapped impatiently. "It looks the same as it always does."

"No, see, it's gotten wider," Matt pointed out. "Maybe it's splitting on the inside but not the outside yet."

"What, like his spine split but not his skin?" Mello raised one eyebrow in appreciation. "It would take a sick mind to think _that_ up. Well done."

"I think Matt's assessment is accurate," L decided, pressing down a bit and causing Light to suck in a pained breath. "When I feel here, the bones appear to be broken, but since Light-kun has not done anything to hurt his tail that cannot be the case. His spine has split down at least two vertebrae."

"Yikes, yuck, and ow," Light commented, snatching his tail away from L's painful examination. "Why does it hurt then?"

"Light-kun's nerves must also be splitting, or preparing to do so," was L's reply. "I have had no experience in this area however, so I suppose, as the saying goes: your guess is as good as mine."

"We must hurry, if he is already beginning to turn into a nekomata," Near put in, beginning to walk again. "We must hope that he does not go insane before we are ready to put our plan into action."

"What a tragedy _that_ would be," Light added, bitterly.

"My opinion is that we should retrieve the amaranth first, and then have Mello fly you, L, and Light back to headquarters while Matt and I follow on foot," Near continued. "There you may finalize the details of our plan against Kira."

"…Yes, that is a good plan," L agreed, not without hesitation. He could feel Light sitting stiffly and silently behind him, his anger like waves of ice washing over the detective. "But our first objective is the amaranth. Mello, I believe that if you are extremely careful you may be able to fly overhead…"

Mello burst into flames before L had even finished his sentence. By the time L had trailed off, aware that he was talking to nothing, Mello was a speck in the sky. Matt barked a short, seal-like chuckle at the look of irritation on L's face.

The remaining four only had to wait ten minutes before Mello was back, streaking from the sky so fast that his primary and tail feathers caught fire entirely, trailing smoke behind him.

"L, I've found it!" he cried, coming to a crashing halt on a nearby boulder, scraping his claws and not caring a bit. "They've sped up now, so I figured they were close, and so I flew ahead a little and I saw it!"

"Where, Mello?" Light demanded urgently, unconsciously gripping L's waist tighter. "Tell us where it is!"

"On that mountaintop, over there," Mello practically sang. So caught up was he in his excitement that he didn't even notice much less care that he had just taken an order from Light. "Beat _this_, Near! Oh, it'll take your entire pathetic _life_ to catch up to me now!"

"Perhaps it would be unwise to point out that nothing he has done required any intelligence whatsoever," Near mused to Matt, "but merely required the ability to fly. Not to mention that he didn't help L, he helped Light."

"Probably," the selkie agreed. "But we'll have to remember it and tell him all about it once he's calmed down."

"Agreed," Near replied with one of his rare smiles.

"Um, hello, we've got a race to run, here!" Light's voice cut through the moment. "Could you run, maybe?"

"Of course," the white centaur sprang forward like a racehorse out of the starting gate, heading for the mountaintop Mello had pointed out. The phoenix seized the back of Matt's shirt and took flight with the selkie dangling from his claws, also aiming for the mountain.

The race was on.

xXxXxXxXxXx

There is not much that can outrun a wolf. The average wolf runs at about forty miles per hour while sprinting, but can keep up a steady six miles per hour trot for days on end. They are endurance runners, and contrary to popular belief, just as patient as a cat and twice as stubborn.

So it stood to reason that one particular wolf was pissed off that his talents were being wasted on a stationary object. A _flower_, no less.

Teru Mikami was Kira's top assassin, his advisor, his right-hand man. Whenever Kira needed something done, Mikami was there to do it correctly and efficiently. All the negative press surrounding werewolves only helped enhance his reputation. In fact, Mikami's reputation had gotten so out of hand that nobody except those who knew the man personally could believe that that soft-spoken, bespectacled man was Kira's assassin. That suited him just fine; it meant he could walk the streets of Tokyo without causing much of a stir.

Mikami would do anything for Kira. He _had_ done anything for Kira, even gone so far as to get involved in his love life, running interference whenever Kira was avoiding Misa. _That_ was dedication at its finest.

So what was he doing in the middle of the mountains searching for a _flower_?

Kira hadn't told Mikami why he wanted the flower, or why he wanted it so quickly. The only thing Mikami knew was that L wanted the amaranth as well, and he was to do everything in his power not to let L have it.

It had been tiring, unutterably exhausting, to work with the grunts Kira had sent along to help. Thank Kira there were only four of them, or Mikami would have gone insane long ago. He didn't see what they were there to help _with_, anyway. They only slowed him down.

Sweet relief washed over Mikami when he saw the mountaintop home of the famous amaranth. Soon he would be on his way back to Kira, flower in hand, and able to put this whole degrading ordeal behind him.

His elation was cut short by the sight of a bird swooping around the mountain. No, not a bird, a phoenix… a golden phoenix. Mikami recognized it instantly. He had been there, the day they had caught that bakeneko with the same name and face as Kira; he had seen that very same phoenix snatch up the bakeneko just as the centaurs opened fire.

That phoenix was working for L.

Mikami immediately ordered his 'companions' to run as fast as they could. He himself became a wolf, easily overtaking them once the transformation was complete. He sprinted for the mountaintop, watching as the phoenix sped away, presumably to report back to L.

The werewolf assassin pushed himself to his very limits, feeling the adrenaline singing through his veins. Finally, here was the hunt. Here was what he was born for. The thrill of the chase, the joy of victory, and maybe even the pleasure of battle…

Mikami was just a few miles from the top of the mountain when he caught sight of a flash of white a few yards away between the rocks. This mountain wasn't high enough for there to be snow on its peak, it was barely tall enough to be called a mountain in the first place, so what was that white thing he saw?

The answer came as the thing surged upwards, leaping over a small boulder in its way. A white centaur. And not just any white centaur, the white centaur whose name both Misa and Mikami had forgotten. (And how furious Lord Kira had been to learn of that! It made Mikami wonder why the nekomata even had the Death's Eyes if he was simply going to rely on Misa and Mikami.) The white centaur working for L.

And on the centaur's back was the bakeneko with the same name as Kira, along with another singular individual Mikami was sure he had never seen in his life. The werewolf felt a flash of regret that his Death's Eyes didn't work while he was in his wolf form, but shook it off as unimportant. What mattered now was reaching the amaranth before them.

He ran faster.

xXxXxXxXxXx

"What is that?" Light shouted over the howling wind and the clatter of Near's hoofs. He threw out a single clawed finger in the direction of the black shadow he had seen racing parallel to them. L followed the line of his finger, looking supremely unconcerned.

"Hmm? Oh, that is Kira's special assassin, Teru Mikami. He is a werewolf," L drawled, sounding bored. Light regarded the back of the detective's head incredulously. He had to be the only person in the world who could race a werewolf up a mountainside mounted on a centaur going at around forty miles an hour and still sound as though he was bored out of his mind.

"Hurry, Near," Light urged.

"I am… trying…" the centaur gasped, pumping his legs even harder.

"He is already going ten miles an hour over the average galloping speed for a horse of his breeding," L commented. "Not many horses can outrun a wolf _without_ two passengers, Light-kun."

"Well _try_," Light snarled. Near shot a nasty glare over his shoulder and continued running. Off to the side where Light had seen the black wolf, Mello darted out of the sky like a stooping eagle. There was a canine howl that froze Light's blood in his veins, and the phoenix soared back upwards with red claws.

_Where did Matt go?_ Light opened his mouth to ask. A dip in Mello's wings, however, revealed the redheaded selkie laying flat along his friend's back, arms wrapped around his neck tightly. He opened his mouth again to wonder aloud how the boy had managed to climb up there mid-flight before a sudden leveling in the ground distracted him. Near breathed a sigh of relief, his stride lengthening considerably.

Light craned his head to see past L and Near's torso. There, in the center of the flat plateau that topped the mini-mountain, was a single red bloom. It was…

…nothing special, actually.

"Is this the right mountain?" Light asked.

"That is the amaranth, Light-kun," L replied, sounding a little out of breath for once. A thought suddenly occurred to the bakeneko.

"L, if it's just sitting out in the open like that, and everyone knows where it is, why is it still here?" Light questioned. "Why hasn't anyone taken it yet?"

"No time for talking, Light-kun," L admonished. "We must hurry!" He slid off Near, dragging a surprised Light behind him. L was dashing towards the flower before Light even had a chance to pick himself up off the ground, the brunet scrambling not to be pulled along on his face. That guy was _strong_ for someone so skinny!

"I have it!" L snatched up the flower, plucking it from the ground and holding it up to the light with an expression of wonder. "I have the amaranth!"

"Good, now give it to me!" a growl broke through the detective's elation. His head whipped around to see the black wolf Mikami standing not two yards away, lips drawn back from dripping fangs.

"Back off, mutt!" Light sprang between the two of them, ears back, claws and fangs at the ready. "The amaranth is ours!"

"Aw, how cute," Mikami barked a humorless laugh. "And here I thought only dogs got leashed. Why don't you run off and play with some yarn, kitty?"

"Screw you!" Light hissed, tail puffed out as far as it would go in anger.

"Last chance, human," Mikami ignored the bakeneko. "Before I take you and your pet apart. Give me the amaranth." L considered. They outnumbered the wolf five to one, but the odds would be evened once the rest of Kira's goons caught up. Then again, Mikami was a trained assassin and hadn't once failed to kill his target. Not to mention that L's fighting abilities were lessened considerably by being handcuffed to Light. But if he gave up the amaranth, what would happen to Light?

"…I think not," he finally decided. "We will be needing this later."

"Then die!" Mikami lunged, jaws open and aimed dangerously at L's throat.

L dropped to the ground, bending backwards and planting his palms on the ground to add extra leverage as his foot shot out, slamming into the wolf's throat. Unfortunately, L's sudden move had unbalanced Light, pulling the boy into the black wolf's side and sending them both tumbling.

Light gave a catlike yowl as canine teeth found his tender tail, raking his claws at the werewolf's eyes. Mikami's paws churned, kicking and clawing at Light's body as the bakeneko writhed and dug his claws into any part of the wolf he could reach.

Their mutual hold was broken by L's foot pounding into Mikami's belly, causing the wolf to yelp and release Light's tail. The boy sprang out of reach while L continued to kick the downed wolf in the head and ribs. Something about the scene wasn't right. There was something missing…

"Ah!" L gave a cry as Mikami recovered enough breath to snap at the detective's leg, luckily only grazing it and shredding his jeans. Light immediately leapt back into the fray, kicking off his shoes so that he could use his hind claws as well.

"The amaranth!" the breathless cry came from Near. The centaur had retreated to the edge of the plateau sometime during the fight, his common sense fighting a losing battle with his equine fear of wolves. "L, you…!"

Light dove to the ground, hearing Mikami's teeth crash together with the force of a bear trap inches from his ears. L batted the black wolf's head away from his companion with a well-placed axe kick to the back of his furry neck. Light scooted backwards, wincing as one of the werewolf's flailing paws raked across his upper arm.

"…dropped it!" Light heard Near shout. Those two words, even out of context, sent a jolt of fear down his spine. If he lost that flower all hope of ever going home was lost. His eyes scanned the ground frantically for a spot of red.

There! It was only a few feet away, standing out from the dirt like a splash of blood. Light's fingers closed around the stem. Time congealed around him, dripping like thick molasses. It was comparable to the feeling one gets in nightmares, Light thought, when you can't run fast enough even though you're going as fast as you can.

That was how he felt as he straightened up from where he had bent over to retrieve the amaranth. Mikami had already sprung at him, and L was in the process of falling backwards, the wolf having used his chest as a springboard. Light's arm uncoiled through the thick air as he threw it upward in the same way L had dangled fish above his head not long ago. His wide, amber eyes met Mikami's cold yellow ones in a single frozen instant. A dark shadow fell over the both of them.

And as suddenly as the air had thickened, it was gone again. Something brushed against Light's fingers just as Mikami plowed into his chest.

_I dropped it,_ was his last thought before the back of Light's head struck a rock in the ground. _We… lost…_

Blackness crept across the sky as Light's eyes slid shut.

_I think I__'m going to die…_

…_I'm sorry…_

…_L…_

_-_

_A/N: No! Wait! Before anyone freaks out, check the top of the page. See? It does NOT say complete. Bear that in mind before you flame me, kay? Thanks. Oh, and I realize that if you're going by the English way of naming people, I am referring to Mikami by his last name. I just… it is physically impossible for me to call him Teru. I don't know why. I just can't. So I will call him Mikami. Get it? Got it. Good._


	7. Concussion Confessions

_Title: Amaranth and Rose_

_Author: YearOfTheKitty_

_Beta: 8Maniacal.Laughter8 (Yay! XD)_

_Disclaimer: I don't own Death Note, but Amaranth and Rose is mine. _

_Warnings: Um. Maybe slight cussing, and probably some kind of violence. Definite yaoi._

_Pairings: Eventual LxLight and MelloxMatt_

_A/N: A little boring, but fairly pivotal. And finally a bit of yaoi. Updates will probably be slower because I've hit the end of my prewritten material. Also, I just bought two new kittens. Their names are Neko and Kiba. (Before you get the wrong idea, the names were actually my mom's idea, not mine. I'm not that much of a manga freak.) _

xXxXxXxXx

L did not panic. Heck, L did not _worry_. He was calm, unflappable, and a complete stranger to the emotions of stress and anxiety. So that feeling, tugging at his stomach and crawling through his insides like a child on a jungle gym? It wasn't worry.

Denial was something he was becoming very good at lately.

Then again, the situation probably merited a bit of concern, even for L. Light, in particular, was beginning to concern him. The boy hadn't moved for two whole days now. Surely that was not normal for a simple whack on the head. Furthermore, his limp tail had acquired something of a cleft on the tip. It was entering the final stages of splitting.

This all would have been worrisome enough even _without_ the threat of their imminent mutual demise. _With_ it, the whole situation just seemed like overkill.

"…uh…" the soft groan snapped L's attention back to Light.

"Light-kun, wake up," L whispered, wishing he could shake the boy. Light groaned again. "Light-kun!" L raised his voice slightly.

"…L…?" Light's eyes fluttered open, unfocused.

"Sh!" L hissed, glancing around. He spoke quickly and quietly, barely loud enough to be heard, "They do not yet know who I am. Call me Ryuuzaki."

"R-Ryuuzaki," Light coughed out a groggy laugh. This perplexed L.

"What is so funny?"

"You wouldn't get it," Light dismissed it. "Where are we? What happened?"

"If Light-kun would sit up, he could see for himself where we are," L sounded uncharacteristically snippy. Light gazed upwards, his eyes still out of focus, unmoving.

"I can't," he admitted. It was taking all his willpower to hold a coherent conversation at the moment. His head was on fire, both from the inside and from a spot on the back of his skull. Added to that was the excruciating pain in his tail, which felt as though a herd of horses had stampeded over it, the pain in his upper arm and the bruises all over his body from the fight with Mikami. Yes, Light had definitely been in better shape.

"Well, then," L hesitated a little. "What is the last thing Light-kun remembers?"

"Mikami jumped on me, and I think I dropped the amaranth… Ryuuzaki, what happened to the amaranth?"

"Matt and Mello," L still spoke in a whisper. "Mello flew past while Matt snatched it out of Light-kun's hand. It is fortunate Light-kun was holding it in the air, or they would not have been able to take it before Mikami. After that, Light-kun fell and hit his head on a rock, rendering him unconscious. I could no longer fight while attached to his body, so I was forced to surrender. Near fled before the rest of Kira's troops caught up."

"Coward," Light spat.

"Please refrain from insulting my lifelong friends," L requested blandly. "Near did not run out of cowardice. He ran because it would have done no good for him to be captured as well. With him free to talk sense into Mello, there is a greater chance of our rescue."

"Our res… Ryuuzaki, why aren't we dead?" Light was confused.

"We are hostages, of course. At least, I am a hostage," L amended. "They plan to use me to force _L_ out of hiding, with the pretense of wanting the amaranth. You, they simply plan to kill."

"So why am _I_ not dead?"

"They are delivering the both of us to Kira."

"That makes… sense, I guess," Light forced his eyes to focus, finding himself staring at cloudless sky, the sun low enough not to hurt his sensitive eyes too much. "So where are we?"

"Light-kun still cannot tell? We are adrift on a river."

"WHAT?!" Light shot upright, pain momentarily forgotten. He looked wildly around, ascertaining the truth of L's words.

They were indeed sitting on a small raft of logs lashed together. Light's wild motions caused the raft to lurch a bit, adding nausea to the list of horrible sensations Light was currently experiencing. He and L were still handcuffed together, but the chain between them had been bolted to the raft. A few tugs proved the bolt to be rock-solid.

"Why are we on a raft in a river?" Light demanded. L pointed behind them mutely. Light twisted around to look.

A line ran from the leading edge of their small raft to a larger craft that looked like a large canoe with a blunt stern. A crossbow was mounted on this blunt end, pointed at L and Light and manned by a bored-looking man. Three other men occupied the boat, two rowing and one sitting in the prow, navigating.

"Where's Mikami?" Light wanted to know. "And exactly how long was I out?"

"Light-kun has been unconscious for two days, counting today," L reported. "The day before yesterday was when we fought Mikami, and we reached this river yesterday morning. The better part of the day was spent constructing the canoe and raft, during which Mikami ran ahead to inform Kira of our impending arrival and his failure." L smiled at that thought.

"Ugh," Light groaned. "I _hate_ water."

"Light-kun insists he is not a cat, but it is comments like that that prove him wrong," L remarked.

"Shut up, Ryuuzaki. I'm a _temporary_ cat. As soon as I'm human again I'll be normal again," Light snapped. Immediately, he moaned and clutched his head with one hand and his tail with the other. "God, it feels like I'm being split in half from _both_ ends."

L had no answer to that. His mind was unable to function at its usual level due to several factors: Firstly, a lack of sugar for almost a week now; secondly, a lack of any kind of food _at all_ for the last two days; and thirdly, the 'normal' sitting position he was forced to assume in order to balance his weight and not capsize their raft.

His mind was not so far gone, however, that he couldn't recognize this as the perfect opportunity to learn more about Light's mysterious background, while the boy was disoriented and not thinking clearly.

"Does Light-kun have a family?" L asked suddenly. Light glanced at him sharply, but answered nonetheless.

"I live with my mom, dad, and little sister," he said.

"Wouldn't they be trying to find Light-kun if he disappeared for so long?" L probed.

"Most likely," Light snorted weakly, the gesture hurting his aching head. "But they'll never find me. Why do you care, anyway?"

"I am making conversation, since we have nothing else to do while stranded on this river," L told him. "Though I will choose another topic if this one makes Light-kun uncomfortable. Earlier, Light-kun laughed at my alias. Why?"

"I told you, you wouldn't get it."

"Why not?"

"It's… complicated," Light quickly concocted a vague story. "I knew someone a lot like you back home, and his name was Ryuuzaki, too. That's all."

"That is not very complicated," L raised one eyebrow. "Though it makes me wonder why Light-kun's tail twitched as he told me. Has Light-kun forgotten that he cannot lie to me?"

_Damn._ Light _had_ forgotten.

"Look, why don't we just stop talking?" the bakeneko suggested.

"Light-kun, I… do not understand," L muttered quickly, as if the words burned him. Light sat in stunned silence as he continued. Had _L_, the three greatest detectives in _two_ worlds, just admitted to not understanding something? No. Impossible. He was too proud for that. Light dragged his attention back to what L was saying. Maybe it made sense in context.

"I do not understand why these questions are so difficult to answer," L continued. "Light-kun claims to oppose Kira, yet he had never once spoken an ill word about him. Light-kun says we can trust him, but he hides things from us and lies as easily as he breathes. He is ignorant about things that are common knowledge, but knows other things that even I have never heard of. Light-kun is a living, breathing paradox and he refuses to tell me _why_. Well, now we are captured, chained, and destined to die in the next few days if not sooner in a botched escape attempt. If that does not inspire some sort of truthfulness in Light-kun, I do not believe _anything_ will. But I still intend to try."

"L…" Light didn't know what to say. "…I _can't_ tell you. The King of Death is already pissed at me… Dalil would probably kill me."

"Light-kun is making excuses," L made an impatient gesture. "If Dalil would kill you for telling me, she would have mentioned it when she explained the rules of her game, would she not?"

"…" Light looked away. He was running out of ideas, and the pain in his head was interfering with his thought process. "…You'd never believe me."

"Try me."

And with those two words, Light was finished. He couldn't escape the detective, and he knew that L would never give up once he set his mind to something. He was going to die soon, most likely, and even if he didn't he would turn into a nekomata and go insane. Either way, he was never going home. And if he told L, maybe he would have some idea of how to help Light out of this mess.

Light was no idiot. He knew that he by telling L he was Kira he would probably be signing his own death warrant. But again, what did it matter? He'd be dead or insane in a few days, and then nobody's opinion would matter in the least.

"…I lived in Tokyo…" he began.

"Lived?" L pounced on the past tense. He didn't realize that Light's mind was made up to tell him the truth.

"Well, I'm not living there _now_ am I?" Light snapped. "Anyway, I lived there with my parents and sister. I was human. And the Tokyo I lived in isn't the Tokyo you know. The Tokyo I lived in…" he took a breath. This was it. After this he wouldn't be able to turn back. "…it's in another world."

There was a long pause, in which the raft rocked gently in the river, birds sang and crickets chirped, and life generally went on as it always did. No lightning shot out of the sky to strike Light dead, no shinigami materialized to finish him off, nothing. Light could practically _hear_ L's mind whirring, figuring percentages, calculating outcomes, trying to determine the truth.

"Go on," came the eventual response, clipped and emotionless.

"Keep in mind that any sudden movements on either of our parts will capsize the raft, and I don't think our friends over there will be too eager to help us," Light babbled quickly, attempting to forestall and violent reactions to what he was about to say. "See, in my world, there are no bakeneko or nekomata. That's why I was so confused. There aren't any centaurs or phoenixes or selkies, nothing but humans and regular old animals. Everybody thinks that things like that are myths, and no one knows there are other worlds. But one day, this notebook fell out of the sky outside my high school…"

Light went on. He told L everything from how he became Kira and learned of the shinigami to how he met Misa and how he had planned to kill the other L. He related the events that had changed him into a bakeneko and finished with how he had met Near.

Through it all, L made absolutely no movement at all except to nibble on his thumb. His face remained flat and expressionless. Light unconsciously scooted as far away from the detective as he could while speaking, tipping the raft dangerously.

The silence dragged. Words pushed and clawed at Light's throat, begging for release, just to relieve the awful tension. Then again, what had he been expecting? He had just confessed to being a serial killer as well as planning to kill the person he was confessing to! Sort of. Another version of the person he was confessing to, anyway. And he wasn't a serial killer, either, he was God.

…

Right?

"Light-kun…" L finally murmured.

"Yes?" Light tensed in anticipation, of what he wasn't sure.

"Light-kun has not met Matt, Mello, or Near in his own world, correct?"

Well. _That_ hadn't been what Light was expecting. But he could deal with that. It was better than the homicide attempt he'd half-expected, anyway.

"That's right," he replied.

"And he has not really come in contact with any counterparts in this world except for me," L continued musingly. "Interesting… Light-kun, would you say that if you had been in Kira's place, would you have done what he did?"

"Um…" Light hesitated, thinking not only about the question, but what the question could mean, and whether or not he should answer truthfully. Would he have killed his family if they had been in the way of his becoming a God? The answer, distressingly, was a resounding 'hell, yes'. But the very fact that it was distressing meant that he wasn't entirely sure, didn't it? That he would regret it after the fact? Though even if he did regret it afterwards, he still would have _done_ it…

And should he tell this to L?

_What the hell,_ he mentally shrugged. _One more __'murder confession' probably won't make him try to kill me if none of the others did. But he might still be disappointed… wait a minute, since when do I care what he thinks? I was planning to KILL him, for God's sake!_

"Yes. I think I would have regretted it later, but I would have killed them," Light fidgeted a little.

"Light-kun is unsure," L noted.

"I'm not unsure of the answer, I was half-planning for my family's deaths in my own world if they ever found me out," Light said distractedly. "I'm unsure of why exactly I'm _telling_ you this." _And I'm unsure as to when exactly your opinion became important to me._

"So, in essence, while you and he are two separate entities, you share the same basic personality, thought process, and possibly even subconscious," the detective mumbled around a mouthful of thumb. "The question is whether or not this is an isolated case. The exception rather than the rule, as it were."

"From what I saw of Misa, she seemed like the Misa from my world, too," Light put in helpfully. "And… you. You act so much like the L from my world it scares me sometimes. And you're identical in appearance and mannerisms, too."

"Ryuuzaki," L corrected him, casting a glance at the men in the boat. They were all laughing and chatting with each other, not paying any attention to the odd conversation occurring behind them.

"Sorry."

"Tell me more about… me," L requested. "Details, please."

"Well… you were kind of a manipulative jerk even when you ignored the fact that you were accusing me of being a mass murderer," Light grinned sheepishly.

"Go on." L's voice and face were flat, unreadable. Light thought for a second, trying to sound clinical.

"I don't think you meant to be one, though. You seemed like you just didn't get along well with people. You were childish, you hated to lose, and you were most definitely the smartest person I ever met," Light paused, wondering if what he was about to say would make things worse or better. "…If it means anything at all, I regretted having to kill you."

"But you believed it was necessary," L finished.

"Yes," Light agreed vehemently. "We aren't that different, Ryuuzaki. You would kill me because you think that I'm doing the wrong thing for the right reasons, right? But that's exactly why I was going to kill you! Amaranths and roses, Ryuuzaki."

"What do flowers have to do with anything?" L was intrigued despite himself.

"The amaranth is average and ordinary," Light elaborated. "And people say that that's what makes it beautiful, right? But that's a matter of opinion. I think that it's just some regular old flower, nothing special about it. A flower's entire job is to grow and look pretty. The amaranth fulfills this purpose, if just barely.

"But roses. Nobody thinks that roses are ugly or ordinary. Everybody loves roses. They don't just look pretty, they look beautiful. They outshine the amaranth in every way. And yet people look to the amaranth as something rare and special because that's what they've been told to do. And yet, there's only one amaranth, while there are thousands of roses. The only thing holding them back is that one, single amaranth. And if it ever died, the roses would replace it as the symbol for beauty. They've almost done it already!"

"I am the amaranth and you are the rose," L correctly interpreted his metaphorical ramblings. "A very good analogy, Light-kun."

"Thank you."

"But what would that make my successors?"

"Dandelions," was Light's decisive answer. "They try to imitate what they can't be. Criminals are weeds, too, but not flowering ones."

"And the rest of the world?"

"Grass." Clearly Light had thought this analogy through. "They can live or die. It makes no difference to me."

_Or they can be struck down by Kira's lawn mower of justice,_ L thought wryly. This analogy of the world as a garden and people as flowers could mean one of two things: either Light was a romantic thinker with a good grasp of extended metaphors…

…or he was completely off his rocker.

"While Light-kun's argument is extremely interesting, this was not my original point," L decided to discard the issue of his companion's sanity for now. "My point was that I and the L you know are essentially one and the same. Our thoughts parallel each other's, and, presumably, our feelings…" He trailed off, looking even more thoughtful than before, if that was possible.

"I'm sleepy," Light announced.

"Don't go to sleep," L immediately ordered.

"Why the hell not?"

"Light-kun has been sleeping for two days straight," L reasoned. "And before that he took severe damage to his head. He might have a concussion."

"When someone has a concussion, aren't you supposed to let them sleep but wake them up every two hours?" Light frowned, confused. L also looked blank.

"I do not know. I am no medical expert. I do, however, trust my judgment more than yours at the moment."

"Because I just confessed to being a homicidal maniac?" Light guessed sarcastically.

"Because blunt force trauma to the head usually impairs the thinking process." Light could _hear_ L rolling his eyes as he said that, even if the black-rimmed eyes stayed perfectly stationary and trained on the brunet's face.

"Well, I'm tired," Light argued sulkily. "How are you planning to keep me awake, huh?" He lay back, careful not to rock the raft too much, and shut his eyes, confident that he had won the argument. After all, what was L going to do? If he talked, Light would ignore him. If he tried shaking him he would capsize them both. Light smiled childishly at his victory.

A shadow fell over the bakeneko's face, blotting out the light that shone through his eyelids. Light cracked one honey-colored eye open to see L hovering over him in much the way he had when Light had first woken in his headquarters. This time Light was not fazed.

"What are you doing?" he muttered. "Get back on your side of the raft, idiot, you'll send us both over."

L said nothing. Light sighed and shut his eyes again. No amount of staring would keep him awake. L could stare at him till doomsday and Light wouldn't even noti…

L leaned forward and pressed his lips firmly to Light's.

L kissed him.

Light was most definitely awake now.

_A/N: I'm trying for longer chapters but… if I do the updates will be even slower… well, we'll see how things go. Also, if anyone has left me a review that I haven't replied to, I sincerely apologize. All reviews are read and cherished, but recently I've taken to (foolishly) checking my email on my mom's computer, which doesn't actually have a keyboard. So… typing replies is a little out of the question… sorry. I am reading them and I do love each of you in a totally platonic non-creepy way!_


	8. Splitting Hairs

Title: Amaranth and Rose

_Author: YearOfTheKitty_

_Beta: 8Maniacal.Laughter8 (Yay! XD)_

_Disclaimer: I don't own Death Note, but Amaranth and Rose is mine. _

_Warnings: Um. Maybe slight cussing, and probably some kind of violence. Definite yaoi._

_Pairings: Eventual LxLight and MelloxMatt_

_A/N: Strange. I say that the MelloxMatt will be relatively minor, yet we get into more detail about them than LxLight… oh, well, it'll all even out eventually. I couldn't resist putting in a quote from __Inkspell__ by Cornelia Funke. See if you can spot it. (It's totally obvious, but it fits so perfectly… XD)_

xXxXxXxXxXx

"What the hell are you talking about?" Mello demanded.

"I told you, I saw them kissing!" Matt insisted.

"You were underwater," Mello scoffed. "How could you tell? Maybe they were whispering to each other so the guards wouldn't hear, and you just _thought_ they were kissing."

"It does seem unlikely," Near agreed. Matt glared at the centaur.

"I see why L thinks you're faithless."

"I side with logic and reason," Near droned. "I do not see why people are always so surprised."

"Yeah, but I didn't think you'd agree with Mello," Matt reasoned.

"I hold no grudge against him. He is the one who insists that we are rivals, not me," Near sighed.

"Back to the _point_," Mello snarled, "what were they talking about?"

"I couldn't tell," Matt shrugged. "I was underwater. Light was talking for a long time, like he was telling a story or something, and L just listened. Light got all upset and I think L was questioning him or something. Then he got into this other long explanation while L listened. After that, Light tried to go to sleep, and L leaned over and kissed him."

"They didn't argue?"

"Not once," Matt denied. The three successors pondered that for a while. Light, not arguing about something? That seemed… unlikely, as Near put it.

The three of them were currently in L's headquarters. Near and Matt had run ahead, leaving Mello to keep watch over L. After that, they had taken it in shifts to watch and wait. They all agreed that any rescue would have to be attempted once they were in the city, where it would be easier to disappear once the deed was done.

"I will go now," Near announced. "No matter what you see next time, Matt, please do not come back before your shift is over. It leaves L unguarded for far too long."

"Sorry," Matt waved a hand unrepentantly. "I just thought you'd like to know that our fearless leader is making out with Kira."

"There was tongue?" Mello asked interestedly. In the background, Near rolled his eyes and exited unnoticed.

"I couldn't tell, I was underwater," Matt repeated irritably. "But the kitty-boy definitely kissed back."

"Jesus," Mello muttered.

"I thought you didn't believe me," the redhead mock-pouted.

"I don't," Mello denied. "L's like… a robot or something. He told me romance and religion restrict his reasoning or something."

"Nice alliteration," Matt observed. Then a light clicked on in his head. "Wait, when were you talking to him about romance and religion?"

"I was wondering which he thought was more important, and he told me they were both beneath him," Mello shrugged nonchalantly. Matt was not buying.

"And why did you ask him something like that?"

"I was curious," Mello snapped. "Christ, Matt, could you be a little more nosey?"

"Which is more important to _you_?" the selkie persisted.

"Romance, definitely," Mello replied without hesitation.

"Why?"

Matt regretted the question as soon as he asked it. A hard glint crept into Mello's eyes, and a crazed smile spread across his face. The blond phoenix flipped over on the couch they were sitting on so that he was straddling Matt, their faces inches apart.

"I'm pretty much going to hell anyway," Mello hissed. "So I'm making damn sure the road is paved with good intentions. Or, alternatively, sex."

And then they were kissing. Matt was slightly surprised at first. Mello had flirted with him almost constantly, sure… but Mello flirted with _everybody_. Except Near.

The next instant, he dismissed it and, with a mental shrug, kissed back. He wasn't complaining. Not at all.

Fire and water don't really mix. One could say they are incompatible. But when they do love each other, they love passionately.

And, yes, there was definitely tongue.

xXxXxXxXx

Light's first thought was, _That manipulative bastard!_

His second: _Hold on, why am I kissing back?_

And his final thought ran along the lines of _Oh, to hell with it_ before he gave himself over to the kiss completely. He pressed up into L's lips, his own parting slightly.

Suddenly, everything went dark. A rushing noise filled Light's ears and something shot up his nose, tickling all over his body. He pulled away from L, trying to gasp, but sucked in a mouthful of liquid.

The raft had capsized.

Light pulled on the chain, using it to propel himself back to the surface. There was just enough slack for him to get his head above water, his arm bent awkwardly beneath him and half his torso under the edge of the raft. His discomfort, however, took a backseat to the hacking coughs that wracked his body as his lungs rejected the water he'd inadvertently swallowed. Water streamed from his nose as well.

It wasn't until he collapsed against the side of the raft, exhausted by the force of his retching, that he thought of L. The boy's head whipped around to be met with the sight of L clinging to the raft in the same manner he was.

_He looks… strange,_ Light thought, _with his hair all slicked down like that._

"You okay?" he asked hoarsely.

"I am fine," L replied. Light was slightly satisfied to hear a note of breathlessness in his usually monotone voice. Apparently, not even L the Unflappable could sound bored while inhaling river water. "Light-kun, however, is scared of water, is he not?"

"What? I don't…" Light's body seized up suddenly.

Water. All around him. Weighing him down. Soaking. Clinging. Smothering.

_It. Was. ON. HIM._

Light craned forward, his breath coming in short, sharp gasps. Adrenaline shot through his body with enough force to shake his limbs which, in turn, caused the raft to shake as well. Light shut his eyes, blocking out the sight of the hated water, and focused all his attention on taking deep, even breaths.

"It appears that Light-kun did not realize our predicament until I pointed it out," L theorized. His voice seemed tinny and far away. "Perhaps we should focus on a way to right our raft, hmm?" Light was unable to reply. L frowned. This would be much harder if Light was panicking.

"Light-kun, listen to me," his voice became gentle. "We must swim underneath the raft and tip it over."

"Can't… swim…" Light gasped between panicked breaths. He was on the verge of hyperventilating.

"You must, or you will not be able to get out of the water," L reasoned. "Just a few moments underwater. Pretend…" here he paused, thinking. "Pretend you are flying with Mello again."

Flying? Light thought about that. Yes, he could pretend. His eyes were already shut. The brunet relaxed, feeling himself slip into the coolness of the water, held up by his chain…

No, the coolness rushing past him was air. It was the wind. The rushing in his ears was the wind as well, and the metallic grip on his wrist was Mello's claws. He was being borne through the air by the golden phoenix. There was a slight trembling, a jerking on his wrist. Turbulence? Yes, that's all it was.

Light's peaceful illusion was shattered by something slamming into his midsection. The force shot him upwards, into something hard. The underside of the raft?

And then he was tipping, and suddenly Light could breathe again. He gulped at the air, sodden lungs aching. After a moment, he was able to turn his head to see L lying on the other side of the raft, also gasping for breath and soaking wet.

"How…?" Light gasped. L glanced at him, understanding the question immediately.

"I kicked your chest… leverage from the chain… pulling on one end and you hitting the other made it tip…" he panted out.

"Hey…" Light levered himself up on one elbow, giving the human a searching look. "You referred to me in the second person. You did it before, too."

"Light-kun is mistaken," L denied, getting his breathing under control. "I never referred to him as such."

"Ouch. So cold," Light flopped weakly back down on his back. "And here I thought we were friends, what with the kissing and all."

"Friends?" L repeated. "Do friends kiss each other?"

"Not usually," Light admitted. "What else would you call us, then?" L thought that over.

"'Friends' will do for now," he finally conceded. Light frowned at that, wondering if it was possible that he was feeling faint disappointment.

"Friends," L scooted closer until he was flush against Light's side, entwining their fingers, "with benefits."

Light laughed at the sheer absurdity of L even _knowing_ that phrase. Distantly, he was aware of Kira's troops in the boat ahead of them, laughing and jeering. At their fall or their position, he didn't know nor did he care. He was suddenly hyperaware that both of them were absolutely drenched, their clothes clinging to them in all the wrong (or right) places. And L's white shirt was suddenly transparent…

_This is quite possibly the strangest hostage-taking in the history of hostage-taking,_ Light decided. _What the hell could possibly happen now?_

The answer came in the form of white-hot agony that blotted out all further speculation. The sky above him blurred into feathery darkness, through which no light or sound could penetrate.

Light's return to consciousness was heralded by noise. A high, shaky keening noise rose above hoarse shouts near his head, and a cacophony of yelling in the background. His vision was dim and hazy, only picking out fuzzy shapes above him that seemed to be shaking.

No, it was _him_ who was shaking, and he was making the keening noise, too. Splinters of pain shot up his spine and down his legs, and his tail felt as if it had been chopped in half with an axe.

His tail… that seemed to hold some importance, but right then all Light could think about were his convulsing muscles and screaming lungs. Why did his lungs hurt? Oh, yes, he was screaming, that was why. But he couldn't stop. Why couldn't he stop? What had happened to his tail? Where was L?

L could honestly say that he had never been scared in his life until the moment Light had shrieked and blacked out. There was an ominous cracking noise as he collapsed, and L panicked, shouting for help. The boy was back only moments later, screaming heartbreakingly and writhing in pain.

L stared in horror at the brunet's tail. The cracking noise… had been Light's tail splitting in two. L hadn't expected it to be so sudden, so violent. Despite the obvious pain Light was in, the tail looked completely healthy, as if he had been born with a forked tail. A single droplet of blood seeped out from the fork, but that was all.

"Light-kun? Answer me!" L was still yelling, grabbing the shaking boy's shoulders and staring panic-stricken at his face. "Light-kun, look at me!" His eyes were open, but they clearly saw nothing.

"This thing is far more trouble than it's worth," a new voice growled. L looked up, surprised to see that they had made land while he'd been examining Light's tail. Now one of Kira's troops trudged towards the beached raft.

In his hand was an enormous knife.

"No, you can't…!" L's voice choked off in horror. Sure, he knew that all nekos cut their tails off at birth… but it was one thing to hear about that and another to see his friend's appendage lopped off right in front of him! L found his voice again. "Light-kun, wake up! They're going to cut off your tail, Light-kun, _wake up_!"

Light stopped screaming. Abruptly, he fell very, very still. His eyes slid shut.

_He's passed out,_ L thought frantically. The man with the knife was there now, pulling the raft towards him and raising the blade… L could already see it soaked in Light's blood…

"Get away from him!" L shouted, lashing out with his foot. His wild kick caught the soldier in the shoulder, knocking him to the ground. L winced as the flailing knife nicked his foot, drawing blood against the alabaster skin.

Light had to wake up now! The other troops were closing in, and L couldn't possibly keep them all away. If anything, they probably wouldn't hesitate to chop L's foot off along with Light's tail.

"Blood…" the soft hiss froze the muscles of everyone present, soldiers and L alike. L turned to see Light's molten amber eyes fixed on his bare foot. Or, more specifically, on the drops of blood leaking from it.

"You… they hurt you…" understanding dawned in Light's eyes. Under the frozen gazes of all present, the new nekomata reached out and took L's foot in his claws. L couldn't bring himself to even jerk away as Light's tongue snaked out, softly licking away the blood. "They will pay."

And with that soft declaration, all hell broke loose.

There was a sharp _snap_! And suddenly L was being pulled up by his cuffed wrist, the bolt securing the chain ripped from the wood. Light's now-massive fangs slashed downwards, and the chain fell in pieces.

As did Kira's troops, moments later, too fast for them to even scream in terror. L, to his shame, remained where he had fallen when the chain had ceased to support him, gaping in horror at the bloody beast that had replaced Light.

The nekomata rose from the final soldier, wiping his mouth on the back of his hand in a surprisingly human gesture. He turned back to L.

What shocked and horrified the detective the most was the utter lack of difference. Light's eyes remained the same round, amber eyes they had always been. His stance was just as upright, his movements exactly the same as before. The only way L could tell he had just dismembered four living, breathing things was the blood all down his front.

"L…" Light murmured. "Are you alright?"

"Am I alri…? Light, do you realize what you just did?!" L dropped all formalities in shock.

"You were bleeding, weren't you?" Light frowned, seeming confused.

"Yes, but it wasn't serious at all," L regained some of his composure. Well, at least Light wasn't trying to rip _him_ apart. "You, on the other hand…" he gestured at Kira's ex-troops.

"Oh, those? We had to kill them eventually anyway if we were going to escape, you know," Light glanced behind him disinterestedly. "And they were going to hurt you, weren't they? They were coming at you with a knife."

"Light-kun," L chose his words carefully, "that knife was meant for you. They were going to cut your tail off."

"Either way," Light was clearly bored with the conversation.

"Is Light-kun… feeling alright?" L questioned. Light took a moment to realize what he meant.

"I'm fine. I don't feel any different, except… well, stronger," Light shrugged. "Physically and emotionally."

"I see," L nodded. That could account for something. The 'insanity' they had been expecting in nekomatas was actually a simple lack of empathy. Except that Light had seemed upset over L's foot, and before his tail had split he probably wouldn't have even noticed that.

"Well this was unexpected," a droning voice cut through L's musings. He turned to see Near picking his way towards them, twirling his hair and looking anything but surprised. "Matt left me with quite a different impression of what was going on."

"Matt?" Light repeated with a confused frown.

"He was following you underwater," the centaur explained. "He claims you were doing something quite different from mass homicide." Light flinched a little at those words, his mind flashing rapidly back to the homicides he had just confessed to committing. And then he realized what Near was talking about. His eyes grew wide.

"He… he told you… he saw us…" the nekomata stammered.

"That's quite the shade of vermillion you're turning," Near commented. "I suppose by your reaction that he wasn't exaggerating as I had assumed he was. Interesting."

"Light-kun's tail has split as well," L put in when it seemed like Light was ready to pass out from sheer embarrassment. Near leaned forward a little to see.

"So it would seem. Has he gone insane?"

"You could try sounding a little concerned," Light griped. "No, I'm not insane."

"He passed out during the split," L related. "I fought off one of Kira's soldiers who was attempting to cut off his tail while he was unconscious. Light-kun woke up and saw that I had been cut. He licked up my blood and then proceeded to snap the chain with his teeth and tear Kira's troops limb from limb. He told me he did so because he thought they were trying to kill _me_ with the knife. And he claims to feel no different from before."

Near digested this, looking thoughtful.

"Hey, you make it sound like I was going crazy or something," Light protested.

"It seemed that way to me at the time," L admitted. "Licking blood off of someone's foot is not considered the height of sanity, Light-kun."

"I have a theory," Near announced. L nodded, coming to the same conclusion. Light looked at the centaur expectantly, waiting for him to elaborate.

Instead, he spun around on his front hoofs and kicked out with his hind ones, aiming at L. The detective made no move to dodge.

In a flurry of movement, Near found himself suddenly on his side, Light balanced on his human midsection with his claws draw back, ready to strike at the centaur's throat.

"Light-kun, leave Near alone," L commanded sharply. Light hissed in anger but obeyed, returning to the detective's side.

"Are you okay? Did he hit you? Why the hell did you do that, Near?!"

"I told you I had a theory," Near snapped, sounding irritated. "I did not expect you to actually knock me over. It is difficult for me to rise from such a position." L moved to his friend's side, knowing that those words were the closest Near would come to actually asking for help. After a bit of pushing on L's part and kicking on Near's, the white centaur climbed heavily to his hoofs, glaring all the while at the anxiously watching nekomata.

"My theory," Near continued once he was vertical again, "is that the insanity such as it is present in nekomata is not a loss of reason or control as we assumed it to be. Instead, it is confined to a single aspect, most likely determined by whatever the bakeneko was thinking about as his tail split."

"Could you repeat that in Japanese?" Light scowled. "And I don't get why you had to attack L to prove I'm insane, since I'm clearly not."

"What Near is saying is that nekomata do not go insane," L explained. "They obsess."

"You think I'm obsessing over you?" Light's eyes widened again, in disbelief this time. "Narcissistic much, L?"

"Try to think logically, Light," L pleaded. "Were you this concerned over my health yesterday, or even this morning?"

"We hadn't kissed yesterday or this morning," Light shifted uncomfortably. L could tell he was thinking about it.

"One kiss is not enough to inspire this kind of reaction," L argued. "Light-kun has admitted that he would kill his own little sister if it suited his purposes. As of now, I am the only person who knows who Light-kun is and what he has done. Wouldn't it be beneficial to him if I were dead? And yet he seems even more concerned over my well-being than he should be. The affection fueling one single kiss is not more than familial ties, Light-kun."

"I killed Sayu, too?" Light looked shocked. "I thought you just meant my parents!" The shock wore off a moment later as he considered. "…But you do have a point." The nekomata took a deep breath and exhaled noisily. "Alright. Assuming you're right and I fixated on you as the object of my 'obsession', what did Kira fix on?"

"Light-kun would be more suited to answer that question than I would be," L pointed out.

"Yeah, you're right again," Light laughed shakily. This was the strangest conversation he'd ever had, hands-down. And he'd had some pretty weird conversations with Ryuk. "Um, Near, did I seem any different when I attacked you? I mean, besides the fact that I was attacking you in the first place."

"Your eyes," Near responded promptly despite having next to no idea what they were talking about. "They turned red."

"Red…" realization struck like a thunderbolt. "That's it! I… Kira… set himself up as a God even before he became a nekomata, right?"

"Kira was only a bakeneko when he rose to power," L nodded thoughtfully.

"When my tail split, I was in so much pain I thought I'd die," Light continued excitedly, not sounding unduly worried about the pain now that it was in the past. "But if I thought I was God at the time, I'd probably be hung up on the fact that I wasn't supposed to be able to die. That would lead in turn to thinking about being God as I changed!"

"Light-kun believes that Kira's obsession is becoming divine," L summarized. "That would fit in with what we know of him."

"But if my eyes turn red whenever I'm obsessing or whatever you call it," Light added, "then that means he doesn't actually have the Death's Eyes, he just lets everyone think he does! That's why he didn't kill Near when he could, because Mikami and Misa had only ever seen him that one time and they thought he was on their side at the time."

"It makes sense," L confirmed. "But it would be foolish to make assumptions based on speculation. He might still have the Eyes."

"Of course, of course," Light dismissed his words. "But it's definitely something I would do in his place."

"I am confused," Near broke in. "Why does Light continue to base Kira's actions on what he would do in his place? What were you talking about, L, when you said you were the only one who knows what he had done?"

"It is unimportant," L told him firmly. Near looked ready to argue, but L was continuing. "For now, we must regroup and plan our next move against Kira."

"The handcuffs?" Near asked.

"Unnecessary," L approached the centaur, pausing and glancing at Light. "Light-kun is no danger to anyone but himself."

Light laughed at that and mounted Near behind the detective. The embrace was no longer awkward for him; in fact, it was quite pleasant. He reveled in being able to freely move his arm again.

"Light-kun, I am curious," L murmured over his shoulder so that Near couldn't hear. "When Light-kun spoke of his transformation he said 'if I thought I was God'. Yet Light-kun has, on several occasions during his confession, referred to himself as God. When did he change his way of thinking?"

Light thought. During his confession he had referred to himself as God more out of habit than anything. He hadn't felt particularly divine in a long time, as a matter of face. When _had_ he changed his way of thinking?

He thought back, back to traveling with L and finding the amaranth. Back to flying with Mello and meeting that warped, twisted version of himself in the city he still could not think of as Tokyo. Back to being captured by centaurs and thinking he was going to die, back to his first sight of the road full of alien creatures, back to teleporting between worlds, back to meeting Dalil, back to the first morning he'd woken up with cat ears. So much had happened in such a small amount of time. When had he starting thinking of himself as human again?

His mind latched onto a moment in time: a centaur's crossbow leveled at his chest. The feeling of vulnerability, seeing the hardness in his eyes and knowing that his life meant less than nothing to that centaur, flashed through his mind.

"Light-kun?" L's voice brought him back to the present.

"I stopped thinking I was God," Light answered simply. "When I realized that I wasn't."

_A/N: Okay, this chapter is the longest yet, I think, and probably the longest a/n, too. I'm trying for longer chapters, really I am. I have to spend a lot of my time keeping my new kittens from getting into trouble, though. One actually tried to eat a fifty-dollar bill! (Don't ask me where he found it. I have no idea, either.) Anyway, I have a question for you, the readers. I have the ending for this fic planned out (don't worry, we've got a long way until then) but I want your opinion. Happy or sad ending? Before anyone answers, keep in mind that the sad ending is actually pretty happy, too, it's just angstier and sad-er than the other one which is all rainbows and sunshine. I like the sad one, but which would you prefer? Let me know!_


	9. The Best Laid Plans

_Title: Amaranth and Rose_

_Author: YearOfTheKitty_

_Beta: 8Maniacal.Laughter8 (Yay! XD)_

_Disclaimer: I don't own Death Note, but Amaranth and Rose is mine. _

_Warnings: Um. Maybe slight cussing, and probably some kind of violence. Definite yaoi._

_Pairings: Eventual LxLight and MelloxMatt_

_A/N: Nobody pointed it out to me, but it's been bugging me so I'll get it out of the way. In the last chapter when Matt said L was making out with Kira, he was referring to how much Light looks like the Kira he knows. He, Mello, and Near still don't know about the other world or how Light was Kira there. Just making that clear. Also, uh, whoops. Someone alerted me to the fact that my anonymous review-thingy was disabled. You know who you are. Thank you very much! And to anyone reading this anonymously… sorry…_

xXxXxXxXxXxXx

Much to Light's relief, L didn't say anything else the entire journey. He also didn't blindfold him this time, so the nekomata was free to observe his surroundings. Near galloped through the mountains for a while, going in a diagonal line from the river. Light supposed that this was in case Mikami decided to return upriver to find Kira's soldiers.

Light was slightly surprised when they didn't head for Tokyo. Instead, Near made for a specific ridge in the mountain range that looked exactly like every other one around it. Light wondered how Near and L told it apart from the rest of the mountains.

As they got closer, Light saw how. Embedded in the side of the rocky cliff was a tall building with black-tinted windows. Light blinked a few times. The building's façade was flush with the rock around it, yet it was quite clearly a building built into an alcove in the cliff face. The answer of how they told it apart from the others was clear, but now the question was how nobody _else_ noticed it. He voiced this question to L.

"These mountains are mostly deserted," L explained. "Even if anybody were to happen across it, our headquarters are known to all as the headquarters of the NPA." Light was struck yet again by the surreal quality of hearing these normal, everyday phrases from the mouth of a man riding a centaur.

"So… where is the NPA, then?" he asked.

"Dead," was L's blunt reply. "Kira killed them a long time ago. He lets the people think that they're still around, and fobs off his own troops as officers."

"But that brings me back to my original question," Light insisted. "How do you hide the fact that a group of wanted men are hiding in a public building?"

"Kira thinks we'd have to be idiots to use such an exposed place as our base of operations," L shrugged. "He outsmarted himself. He sent out a team to investigate the building a year or so back, but at that time we had different headquarters."

"Whammy's House," Near joined in the conversation. "It burned down." The centaur smiled fondly. "Luckily no one was injured in the fire except for Mello."

"Mello?" Light repeated, confused. The phoenix didn't look burned at all…

"He was caught in the blaze and reduced to ashes," L related flatly. Seeing Light's confusion, he elaborated. "Mello is a phoenix, Light-kun. He cannot be killed in a fire, nor most other conventional methods. They merely inconvenience him. If Mello were to be, say, stabbed, his dead body would burst into flames and collapse into ashes. He would then be reborn from those ashes as a chick again. In the Whammy's House fire, Mello simply skipped the dying part and went straight into the ashes part."

"But then why isn't he a little kid if he has to start over every time he dies?" Light questioned.

"Does Light-kun know the average lifespan of a swan?"

"Um… I'm going to have to say no," Light's forehead scrunched up as he attempted to fathom exactly how the two queries were related.

"I cannot speak for Light-kun's world," L continued. "But in this one, the closest avian relative of the phoenix is, in fact, the swan. The average swan lives for only seven years. Phoenixes, admittedly, live much, much longer than that…"

"Phoenixes live until they're killed," Near interrupted. "They don't die of old age."

"…but they mature quickly due to their genetic predisposition," L finished with a glare at the back of Near's curly head. He hated being interrupted. "Which is fortunate for us all, as we can barely deal with Mello as he is now."

Light shuddered at the mental image L's words conjured up: a blond-haired toddler throwing a raging temper tantrum demanding chocolate, with the added bonus of being able to set things on fire. Thank God for swans.

"In any case, we are here," L commented. The two dismounted and followed Near through the glass double doors. The centaur and human strode through the darkened room with the brisk stride of habit, leaving Light to trail behind and marvel. The darkness impeded his feline eyes not a bit, and he could clearly see the metal detectors and other security measures that were now covered in dust and obviously out of use.

The door at the other end led to a better-lit hallway, which in turn led to the room that Light had woken up in and first met this version of L. The room was exactly the same as he remembered it except for its occupants.

Who were currently making out on the couch.

"It seems we have interrupted something," L echoed Mello's words from that day with a small grin. Mello and Matt broke apart, panting and glaring alternately.

"I always knew you looked up to me as a role model," the detective continued, a definite glint of mischief in his eyes now, "but I did not realize exactly how far you were willing to take that idolization."

"Shut up, L," Mello snapped. His voice lacked its usual bite, probably owing to the fact that he was still breathing heavily and lying on top of Matt. "I was gay long before you were."

"Anyway, what happened?" Matt sat up, shoving Mello off to the side. "You didn't tell us you were going to spring them, Near, or we would've gone to help."

"I did not plan on it," Near admitted. "They had already escaped by the time I arrived."

"How?" Mello demanded. In answer, Light swung his forked tail around for all to see. L took that as his cue to relate the events leading up to their return with his usual expressive flair. Light was forcibly reminded of the history teacher he'd once had who's lectures had been reputed to have the ability to sedate rabid animals.

"Wicked," Matt muttered once the detective had stopped droning. "That reminds me…" he reached into a pocket and withdrew something. "Catch." The small something flew in a glittering arc to be easily snatched by Light's hand. He inspected it curiously.

It was a tiny glass jar with a cork in the neck. It had been threaded onto a silver chain like a necklace. Inside the jar was a clear fluid, like water only thicker.

"It's amaranth nectar," Mello told them. "We squeezed that much out of it before it ran dry."

"That reminds _me_," Light turned to L. "If the amaranth's hiding place was such common knowledge, why hadn't anybody taken it already?"

"People take the amaranth all the time, Light-kun," L explained, shuffling over to the couch across from the one Mello and Matt were occupying as he spoke. Light followed, listening interestedly. "The problem is not getting it, but keeping it. Once someone has healed themselves with the nectar, they become immune to its properties and it just becomes nectar to them."

"Not to mention that it's a _flower_," Mello put in, whipping a chocolate bar out of seemingly nowhere and beginning to unwrap it. "After a while it withers just like any other."

"I thought it never died," Light frowned. He seemed to be in a constant state of incomprehension these days, and it annoyed him to no end.

"It is a flower, Light-kun," L reiterated. "As you have said before, the only thing that makes the amaranth special is its nectar. But once picked, the amaranth is truly just like any other flower. It will run out of nectar and die. However, as we speak there is a new amaranth growing from the roots of the old one. The moment this amaranth dies, the new one will bloom and begin producing healing nectar. In this sense, the amaranth never dies."

"What if someone uprooted it?" Light asked.

"It is impossible," L shook his head. "The amaranth's roots are more akin to that of a tree than that of a flower. They run far too strongly and deeply for anyone to tear them up."

"Oh…" Light trailed off. There was silence in the room. "So… now what?"

"We must formulate a plan to depose Kira," Near stated in what would have been a 'no duh' tone of voice if anyone besides Near had said it.

"Getting close to him will not be a problem," L asserted confidently. "The problem is how to get close to him while still retaining the ability to kill him. Now that Light-kun is a nekomata, he is a match for Kira in physical strength, which means that if we were to fake his capture he would not be allowed close enough to fight."

"Concealing a weapon is not an option," Near put in. "They will search anyone they catch."

"And nobody's ever been inside his castle except his guards," Mello added. "So we wouldn't know how to sneak in undetected."

"The bottom line is that we have no idea how to do this," Matt finished. "And the longer we wait the worse we're screwed."

"This would be so much easier with a gun," Light groaned, putting his face in his hands.

"What is a gun?" L, Near, and Mello asked at the same time. Mello scowled, L looked amused, and Near seemed not to notice.

"You guys have engines and electricity but not guns?" Light lifted his head and raised an eyebrow. When nobody answered he answered he explained. "Guns are weapons where I come from. They shoot bullets, pellets of metal, with enough force to go right through somebody. They're a hell of a lot more destructive than crossbows, and smaller and easier to hide, too."

"I've never heard of anything like that," Mello snorted. "You're out of your mind."

"Does Light-kun think we could kill Kira if we had a gun?" L asked seriously, to Mello's irritation.

"Easily," Light nodded, then slumped. "But it's a moot point since we don't have a gun. And before you ask, no, I have no idea how to make one." He pinched the bridge of his nose in agitation. "But that brings us right back to where we started. We need to kill Kira and have no idea how. Any ideas? I'm out."

"Hyuk, hyuk, hyuk. That's not like you, Light," a creepily familiar voice chuckled. Light whipped around, his wide amber eyes blinking as he struggled to absorb what he was seeing.

Ryuk. Ryuk, standing in the middle of L's headquarters, laughing and staring at him with that dead-fish stare he had always found slightly disturbing.

"Where the hell did you come from?" he half-shouted.

"I was bored," was Ryuk's predictable reply. "And I ran out of apples. So I came to see how you were doing. I gotta admit, I didn't see you teaming up with L anytime soon. Weren't you planning to kill him?" Light gritted his teeth.

_Yes, and the world seems determined to remind me of that at every given opportunity,_ his mind snapped.

"I see," his mouth grated.

"L, I'm sorry to say that for once in your life, you were wrong," Mello announced. "Becoming a nekomata has sent him off the deep end."

"Who is Light-kun talking to?" L asked, cocking his head curiously. Ryuk chuckled harder. A jolt ran through Light as he realized what was going on.

They hadn't touched the Death Note. They couldn't see him.

More importantly, he had just been talking to what seemed to them like thin air. There was no way he'd be able to dig himself out of this anytime soon…

"Ryuk," he said simply. L's eyes brightened in understanding as Mello's darkened in irritation.

"You got any apples around here?" Ryuk asked, scratching his head. Light relayed the question.

"In the kitchen," L pointed to a door off to the side and kept his eyes trained unseeingly on the patch of air Light had been addressing. "Help yourself, Ryuk-san." The shinigami chuckled again at the detective, who was staring about a foot too far to the left, before departing through the wall in search of apples.

"L, what the hell is going on?" Mello was fed up with waiting. "There's no one there!"

"Ryuk is a shinigami," L explained. "He cannot be seen by anyone except Light-kun." He turned to Light. "Why did he say he was here? I was under the impression he was left behind in your home."

"He was," Light shrugged. "He said he was bored and he ran out of apples. Basically the only reason he follows me around in the first place is because he says I'm interesting, and I give him apples. He's addicted to them."

"Uh-_huh_," Mello drawled. He turned to Matt, twisting a finger by his temple and mouthing the words 'batshit insane'.

"I can read lips and I'm not crazy," Light deadpanned. He hadn't expected anyone to believe him but L, anyway.

"That does not explain how he got here from your house," L ignored Mello completely. His inflection seemed to magically change the word 'house' to 'world' in Light's ears.

"He's a shinigami…" Light said slowly. "So he can travel between them…" His eyes met L's as understanding flashed between them like heat lightning.

"Hey, Ryuk!" the nekomata shouted.

"Yeah?" the shinigami's head poked through the door, chewing on something.

"Could you send me home, just for a few minutes?" Light asked eagerly. Ryuk thought it over, slowly crunching his apple in a thoughtful way. He sauntered into the room completely, disregarding Mello, Matt, and Near's reactions to the apples they could see in the arms of the shinigami they couldn't.

"Dalil would probably be pissed at me…" Ryuk hemmed and hawed. "But… it would be interesting… and if it's only for a few minutes…"

"I'll give you a whole bushel of apples," Light wheedled.

"Done," Ryuk agreed in a split second. "Where do you want to be dropped off?"

"Whichever hotel the task force is using right now," Light decided. He turned to L and company. "He says he'll send me there for a few minutes if we give him a bushel of apples. I'll jump out, grab some guns, and come right back."

"I suppose I cannot go with you," L sighed.

"Nope," Ryuk denied. "Not even for three bushels of apples."

"He says no."

"How disappointing," L sighed again. "I was hoping to take a look at Light-kun's home."

"So are we going now?" Ryuk rubbed his hands together gleefully, eager for his promised bushel of apples.

"Yep." Light hopped off the couch as the cackling shinigami plunged his hand into the wall and began to stir. "See you in a few," he couldn't resist throwing back nonchalantly. The look of stupefied amazement on Mello and Matt's faces and the run-of-the-mill amazement on L and Near's when they saw the swirling portal was priceless.

This time, Light stepped through the portal without hesitation, cockily.

So of course Ryuk had to trip him on his way past, sending the brunet tumbling with an undignified squeal.

Mello's laughter chased Light all the way back to his world.

xXxXxXxXxXxXx

This time when he was disgorged from the portal, Light was left standing instead of sprawling. Behind him, the wall still spun with otherworldly (ha, ha, ha) colors.

"Hyuk, hyuk, hyuk," Ryuk's laughter could be heard through the portal. "Ten minutes, Light, or I'll leave you there for Dalil to kill with her Note." With this reassuring statement, the hole in reality spun itself tighter and faster until it was just a pinprick, and then it was gone.

Light took a look at his surroundings. He was in the hall of a hotel, judging by the décor and rows of numbered doors. Light took a moment to thank God that nobody had been watching his arrival. The portal had deposited him directly in front of a door that looked like all the others, but Light knew was sheltering the task force as they tried to track down Kira.

_L's probably convinced 100 percent that I'm Kira now,_ he thought with an internal sigh. _Unless Misa somehow managed to keep killing the criminals like usual without me there to guide her. I doubt it. And he'd definitely notice that I went missing at the same time the pattern broke. Oh well, I'll deal with it if I make it out of this thing alive. Ten minutes._

Light checked the door. He was relieved to note that it was an old-fashioned door that needed a key instead of a card to open. He examined his claws for a moment before shoving his index fingernail into the keyhole, jiggling it around and hoping by some miracle it would work.

Some higher power must have been listening, because work it did. The door swung inward with a click. Light knew he had less than ten minutes now. There was no way L didn't have any security on this room that let him know when it was being broken into and locked.

Too late, he realized that his tail and ears were out for all the world to see. He shrugged and pushed his way into the hotel room. There was nothing he could to about it now.

The room was dark and deserted, much to Light's relief. It was nearing sunset, and he had been banking on the fact that L would let the task force leave early out of courtesy to Soichiro, who was probably losing his mind with worry over Light's disappearance. The problem then was L himself. The rooms were obviously empty, however, so the nekomata decided to be grateful for small favors and continue his work.

He snooped around the hotel room, finally grabbing a pillowcase from the bed and using it as a makeshift sack. In it he shoved every useful thing he came across. Handguns, cell phones, and even a package of marshmallows that Light figured L would appreciate went into the pillowcase. A survey of the closets revealed, to the nekomata's shock and delight, a single sniper rifle. This was quickly loaded into the sack as well.

Light surveyed the ransacked room, not caring at all that it had quite obviously been combed through. In fact, it would be less suspicious if he didn't try to cover up the robbery. Satisfied and desperately trying to block the word 'catburglar' from his head, (where it was stubbornly resisting eviction and sniggering immaturely) Light opened the door.

It was just his luck that someone was standing right on the other side of it, hand raised in the act of inserting a key.

And it was just karma that that someone was L.

"What the…? Light-kun…?!" L gaped, first at Light, then at Light's ears and tail, and finally at the bulging pillowcase with the top of sniper rifle protruding from it. Light swore loudly and creatively and shoved his way past the staring detective, bounding down the hall.

"Ryuk!" the nekomata howled, not caring who heard at this point. The sound of bare feet hammered down the hallway behind him as L gave chase. He felt fingers graze one of the tips of his tail before curling it hurriedly out of L's reach.

"Ryuk, open the damn portal!" Light howled again, upping his pace. Only yards away, a turn loomed. L was close enough that if Light slowed down enough to make the turn he would definitely be caught. Where was that shinigami…?

The wall at the corner began to swirl and spin with colors, sending sweet relief trickling down the brunet's spine and eliciting a shocked gasp from his pursuer. Just a bit further…

xXxXxXxXxXxXx

L hated losing. This was the fundamental personality trait that defined his essential being. Moreover, he _didn't_ lose.

It was only natural, then, that he saw Light's disappearance as a minor setback, nothing more. He was the world's three greatest detectives in one, after all. One solitary teenage boy couldn't hope to elude him for long. At Soichiro's insistence and his own determination, L searched in vain for any clues as to his suspect's whereabouts.

According to his family, the last time they had seen him he had been acting strangely. He had gone to school in a hat and jacket despite the weather, and hadn't spoken more than two words to anyone the entire day. A chat with a hysterical blonde girl that Light's sister had identified as his girlfriend revealed that he had been acting even more distant than usual, and that she had noticed that he was hiding something beneath his coat.

But what truly perplexed L was the utter lack of clues beyond these. 'He was acting weird' didn't give him any insight as to where the boy had disappeared to. And disappeared he most certainly had. All evidence stated that he had gone to his room and simply evaporated. Nothing was missing except Light himself, so he hadn't run away. He was smart enough to take at least some money if he had run. There were no signs of a break-in or a struggle, and no demands had been made of anyone so kidnapping was probably out.

L supposed that the boy could always have slipped out and gone somewhere secluded to kill himself, but that wasn't in keeping with his personality at all. Light was just melodramatic enough to have left some sort of suicide note if that had been his intention. L was quite forcibly reminded of Naomi Misora, who had dropped off the face of the earth in much the same way that Light had. Had L been wrong, and Kira had gotten to him? It didn't seem likely.

Then again, it didn't seem likely that anyone, even someone as intelligent as Light, could avoid discovery for as long as he had. Soichiro was becoming more and more agitated by the day, and his hair was graying right before their eyes. Matsuda had become more subdued as well, and even the other members of the task force seemed worried. Light had been popular.

What was everyone's main concern, however, were the Kira killings. They had reduced substantially since Light's absence. L had placed the boy's girlfriend under surveillance, suspicious of the fact that Light had never mentioned a girlfriend before and that he had acquired one so soon after the events with Sakura TV and the second Kira. The killings were now limited to criminals that had been reported before Light went missing, and no recent ones. This was all the confirmation anyone needed to know that Light was, 100 percent, Kira.

So it came as somewhat of a shock for L to find him burgling his hotel room.

L had given the team the day off, concerned by Soichiro's obvious stress levels and the fact that there was little to investigate anymore besides finding out where Light had disappeared to. Watari was out shopping for cake for L, and the detective himself had gone out at his old friend's insistence that he needed fresh air and sunlight every once in a while.

The door flew open just as L was preparing to unlock it, revealing Light frozen in shock in the doorway. In that instant, L took in the sight of him with what could have been relief but probably wasn't. He was Kira, after all.

L's brain locked at the sight of cat ears atop the boy's head and the furry, forked tail lashing behind him. They simply did not compute. How could they? It wasn't physically possible!

Instead, his eyes skipped to the pillowcase thrown over Light's shoulder like some demonic anti-Santa Clause. It was filled with pilfered items, most prominently Watari's rifle.

After a split second of staring, Light's stream of vivid profanity jump-started L's brain again. The cat-boy took off down the hall, shouting something that L didn't think was a word.

_Of all the days I could have chosen to go for a walk! _He berated himself, pounding down the hallway after the fleeing murderer-slash-thief. Light shouted again in a creepily catlike yowl, something about a portal. L disregarded it and concentrated on catching him. Once Light was in his custody, he could take his time questioning the boy about his vanishing act and subsequent robbery.

Of course, since L had disregarded the idea of a portal, the sight of one was understandably startling. The detective gave an uncharacteristic gasp as the far wall morphed and changed, his footsteps faltering a little.

Light, however, sped up a bit, his goal clear. L made a snap decision. He had wasted precious seconds with that one hesitation, so he didn't hesitate again.

Instead, he threw himself forward, tackling Light in the small of his back. The cat-boy yowled again in shock, thoroughly creeping L out, and both of them went toppling head over forked-demon-cat-tail.

There followed an interval of time that L could safely say would haunt him until he died. Other than that, words failed to describe the sensation accurately. The only real thing he felt was the squirming body he clung to with all his strength. (To make sure he didn't escape, of course, not because he was scared. That would be ridiculous.)

L's landing was softened by Light underneath him, but they had twisted around enough that the bag containing Watari's rifle jabbed painfully into the detective's ribs. He was limp for a moment, panting for breath as he gathered his wits. He became aware of several voices around him, all shouting.

"Who's that?"

"Where'd he come from?"

"You owe me two bushels for this, Light!"

And, loudest and nearest, "Get _off_ of him!"

Someone seized the back of L's shirt and hauled him upright. Wide, black-rimmed eyes met wide, black-rimmed eyes. L took in the person before him, who was doing likewise. Messy, black hair, nondescript clothes, finger resting on lower lip, bulging, sleepless eyes, pale skin…

"B?!" two baritone voices cried at the same time.


	10. Gunning for Change

Title: Amaranth and Rose

_Author: YearOfTheKitty_

_Beta: 8Maniacal.Laughter8 (Yay! XD)_

_Disclaimer: I don't own Death Note, but Amaranth and Rose is mine. _

_Warnings: Um. Maybe slight cussing, and probably some kind of violence. Definite yaoi._

_Pairings: Eventual LxLight and MelloxMatt_

_A/N: I do not believe there are any words for the depth of my shame at this moment in time. Truly… I'm sosososossososososososooooooooooo sorry this chapter took so long! If it makes it any better at all, I have an excuse! School started. What kind of sick psychos assign homework on the first day? My teachers, that's who. Anyway, I grovel on the ground and humbly beg your forgiveness, for the chapter length as well as the delay. I wanted to get this out there before anyone came after me with torches and pitchforks. Just as a warning, future updates will be sporadic as well, so I highly recommend putting this on your alerts if you're interested, since I follow no schedule. That is all. I hope you like this super-short chapter anyway._

xXxXxXxXxXxXx

"Um, you're about ten letters off, there, buddy," Matt pointed out.

"Who the hell is that, Yagami?!" Mello snarled, leaping to his feet.

_Ouch, we're using last names now,_ Light winced. _He must be_ pissed.

"Light-kun, you said you were going to retrieve _guns_," L sounded as exasperated as he could without actually showing any emotion. He was very good at that, Light noticed. "Not _me_!"

In all actuality, L really was exasperated. Now the secret would have to come out to his successors, not to mention that L had no idea how to deal with… himself. What could he tell him? Did he really know himself as well as he thought? What if he didn't? It threw a whole new spin on the expression 'self-discovery'.

"You tackled me!" Light groused to both Ls at the same time. "I couldn't stop you. Now look what you did."

"That is going to become very irritating _very _quickly," the L who wasn't from Light's world stated.

"It is clear now that you are not B," the L from Light's world announced. "But I cannot for the life of me figure out what it going on here."

"You and me both, buddy," Mello chimed in. "Who's the L look-alike and where the hell did he come from?"

"He accidentally fell through the portal," Light sort-of explained. He then proceeded to tell everyone present the whole story of his becoming Kira and coming to this world as succinctly as possible. His audience's reactions differed almost comically.

The Ls listened with identical cocked heads, blank faces, and index finger in their mouth. Mello scowled and looked ready to jump Light and tear him limb from limb. Matt's mouth sagged without his realizing it, though his eyes were covered by his goggles. Near was as interested as Light had ever seen him, but still mostly expressionless.

"…and so we thought guns were the best way to kill him," Light concluded his tale, this part addressed mainly at the L from his world. "So we convinced Ryuk to send me back to our world for a few minutes so I could grab some, and that's where you came in."

"That is… an incredible tale, Light-kun," the L from Light's world stated flatly. It was quite clear that he meant 'incredible' in the literal sense rather than the colloquial one.

"It's all true!" Light defended himself, though why exactly he was defending his claim to be a murderer to a detective was unclear. Oh, right, because he was falling head-over-heels for said detective. Or, at least, a version of him, anyway. "You… the other you… can confirm it!"

"One of us… me… should go by some other name so as to avoid confusion," the L from Light's world turned to the other L. "If I answer to Ryuuzaki, you may go by…"

"Lawliet," the L not from Light's world directed the word at the nekomata. "My name is Lawliet."

There was a stunned pause. For a split second, Light wondered why everyone looked so shocked. And then the words sank in. _His name…_

And suddenly, everyone was shouting again.

"You idiot, don't go telling people your name!" Mello screamed.

"L, that defeats the purpose of having an alias," Near warned.

"Why would you do that?" Ryuuzaki, the L from Light's world, shouted loudest. "He just confessed to being able to kill with a name and a face, and you just hand out my, _our_, name like that?! You can't trust him, why do you think I gave him a false name in the first place?"

Lawliet, the L who wasn't from Light's world, simply stood and took the abuse being heaped upon him. After a few moments of ranting, Ryuuzaki became aware of the other voice still yelling.

Light himself, the very object of everyone's distrust, was shouting himself blue in the face, raving about the exact same things Ryuuzaki was. This shocked the detective so much that he fell silent, gazing at the brunet in wonder.

"…kill you as soon as I get my hands on the Death Note again…!" Light was accusing himself. He, too, shut up when he realized that everyone was staring at him. "What? I'm not supposed to be aware of the fact that I can't be trusted?"

"You're not supposed to _agree_ with the fact that you can't be trusted," Mello scowled even harder. "It makes us trust you more."

"And God knows we wouldn't want _that_," Matt mumbled. He was universally ignored.

"In case no one has noticed," Lawliet began, "Light-kun himself has admitted that he no longer believes he is a God. He also _clearly_ harbors no desire to kill me, us, anymore."

"How could you, we, possibly know that?" Ryuuzaki questioned heatedly.

"Like this." Before Light could protest, Lawliet had swept him up in another passionate kiss. He heard Mello and Matt whistling in the background, but his entire being was focused on his lips. After a little while, he pulled back, remembering that Ryuuzaki was watching. He wiped his lips free of saliva and glanced at the detective shyly. Ryuuzaki's face was, as always, unreadable.

"If Ryuuzaki gets off on Lawliet and Light making out," Mello was saying from the seating area, "would that be voyeurism or narcissism?"

"Does anyone really care?" Matt countered.

"What I want to know," Light broke in, making his voice as even and unconcerned as possible, "is who this B person you two were talking about is."

"B was my successor," Ryuuzaki slouched over to the seating area, followed by Lawliet. Light was left to seat himself on the floor next to Near's hoofs, as both couches were now full. "He was born with the strange ability to see the names and lifespans of people, which I now realize means he was born with Death's Eyes. He went crazy and started a string of murders in Los Angeles with the intent of proving himself superior to me by not getting caught. I eventually apprehended him with the help of Naomi Misora," here Light winced, remembering her death at his hands, "but he was killed by Kira years later. The reason I mistook… myself… for him is that B took to imitating my appearance as part of his strange obsession."

"Is that what happened in this world, too?" Light asked.

"Not at all," Lawliet looked surprised. "The B I know was loud and impulsive, but not at all capable of cold-blooded murder! He was my successor as well, but he was killed by Kira just before we were forced into hiding. Our schemes usually involved him pretending to be me, since we were quite alike in appearance anyway, and what differences we did have were easily fixed with eyeliner. He also did not possess the Death's Eyes."

"How is that possible?" Light frowned. "Every person I've met acts exactly the same as their counterpart in the other world. Why is he different?"

"I played this game once," Matt's quiet voice broke in, "about some dude who was switched with someone who looked exactly like him when he was a baby. He was called a… chainling or something."

"Changeling," Light corrected automatically. At everybody's incredulous glances, he added defensively, "I think my sister played the same game!"

"Anyway, the point is that he was switched with a fairy-thing that was designed to cause chaos. What's a string of violent murders but chaos?" the selkie paused a moment, then added, "The final boss was a bitch to beat, too."

"I, too, have heard legends of changelings," Near nodded.

"But you said you didn't know other worlds existed until I came along!" Light protested.

"It wasn't implausible," the centaur explained. "But neither was it confirmed. None of us are fairies, so it is entirely possible that they knew about the other worlds and simply kept it secret. We never suspected because, despite what you seem to think, magic is just as impossible in this world as it is in yours."

"What do you call kids turning into seals, then? Or flower nectar healing wounds?" Light challenged.

"Evolution and science," Lawliet answered. "Do you find it magical that a tadpole changes into a frog, or a caterpillar into a butterfly? Do you find it magical that certain herbs heal illnesses, or that others cause it? These are the same principals by which our world works."

"Well, now that we've had this wonderful and enlightening chat," Mello broke into the silence that followed. "Did you get the guns, kitty-cat?"

"I got them," Light confirmed, bringing a few out of his momentarily-forgotten pillowcase o' ammunition. "Oh, I also stole these. I guess you two will have to share them." He pulled out the bag of marshmallows and tossed them at Lawliet.

"Those are mine!" Ryuuzaki protested.

"He gave them to me," Lawliet retorted, looking for all the world like a toddler sticking his tongue out.

"He stole them from _me_!"

"Well, they're mine now."

"Give them back!"

"No!"

Light, Mello, Matt, and Near's heads swiveled back and forth like spectators at a particularly childish ping-pong tournament, observing the culminating death match over a bag of sugar with varying degrees of horror and amusement. Light made a mental note to never _ever_ throw something sweet between two Ls again.

"So, everyone!" Light half-shouted in an embarrassingly high voice, attempting to halt any further playground dialogue from the two detectives. "This one here is a sniper rifle! See, you can shoot someone from a long ways away with this, much easier than with a smaller gun. And it's designed for stealth."

"I still think you're totally making this shit up," Mello announced. "Ooh, fancy pieces of metal you've got there, Mr. Pussycat! Do we know if they _work_?"

BANG.

Mello sat frozen in place, wide-eyed and staring. Slowly, face unchanging, he lifted one gloved hand to his temple, where he had felt something ruffle his blond hair as it passed. In the wall behind him, just to the right of the phoenix's head, was a neat, round hole.

"Does _that_ answer your question?" Light asked smugly, lowering the handgun he'd whipped out.

"Nice aim," both Ls complimented in unison.

"We can't really waste anymore bullets, though," Light warned. "I could only bring so many, and who knows how much ammo it'll take to bring down Kira?"

"With any luck, one bullet should be sufficient," Ryuuzaki commented, sneaking a handful of marshmallows out of the open bag when his counterpart wasn't looking. "I believe I have something of a plan in mind." His pale hand flashed out again, jaw working to surreptitiously chew the sticky treats.

"As do I," Lawliet agreed, frowning at the half-empty bag, sure that he hadn't eaten that many marshmallows already. "If Mello were to fly Matt above the courtyard, Matt could shoot Kira with this sniper rifle. The only difficulty would be getting him outside at the right time, and not getting Mello shot down in the process."

"Getting him outside would be easy," Light shrugged. "I would just have to get captured again and he'd come running. As for the timing, that's where these come in handy." The nekomata brought out the cell phones he had taken, explaining to his awed audience about the wonders of text messaging

"Um, Light-kun, I hate to put a damper on your plan," Ryuuzaki spoke up after a moment. "…but do you get reception in this world?"

Light's face fell. He hadn't even thought about that! He flipped open the phone, feeling irritated and foolish when he saw that, in fact, the phones did not work.

"Damn," he muttered. "…Okay, new plan."

"How about we just take a wild guess?" Mello suggested, having fully recovered from his gun-induced shock. "I mean, how hard can it be? As soon as old Red-Eyes up in the castle hears he's got the pussycat again, he'll come running outside, won't he? So me and Matt just swoop in and take him out before Light gets anywhere near him!" Mello made a sweeping gesture with his hand to demonstrate. "Then I'll fly by you three and give you the go-ahead to bust the pussycat out and we're home free!"

"…It puts Light-kun in great danger," Lawliet hesitated. Ryuuzaki said nothing, too busy being outraged at the sudden emptiness of the marshmallow bag.

"It also puts a lot of pressure on Matt," Light pointed out. "I mean, making a shot from that distance while moving, possibly at a moving target, and hopefully in one hit? You've never even fired a gun in your life, what makes you think you can pull that off?"

"I've shot crossbows," Matt defended himself. "Just give me a few bullets to practice with outside and I'm sure I'll be able to do it by… when are we doing this again?"

"Tomorrow," Light decided. "It give you one night to get good with the sniper rifle, and the Ls, Near, and I can finalize the details of my supposed recapture. We'll put it into action tomorrow morning. Better sooner than later. My time is running out fast."

He had counted the days in his head: Dalil had said he'd only have a month to kill his doppelganger. He had spent eight days in this world, and one in his own. He wasn't sure if that one counted since it had been before he'd been informed of the rules of the game, but he wouldn't put anything past the treacherous shinigami and he wasn't taking any chances. Counting today, that made ten days out of thirty. And those ten days had been spent chasing some stupid flower, not killing Kira!

So now they had to make do with a slipshod plan with as many holes in it as Swiss cheese and hope it worked. Because if it didn't there was no way in hell he could accomplish in twenty days what this group had been trying to achieve for who knew how many years.

His entire existence was depending on the aerial sniping abilities of a chain-smoking selkie from the back of a chocoholic phoenix.

Well.

At least life had definitely hit rock bottom this time.

Along with his ego, pride, and self-respect.

Those, too.


	11. Introspective

7

_Title: Amaranth and Rose_

_Author: YearOfTheKitty_

_Beta: 8 (Yay! XD)_

_Disclaimer: I don't own Death Note, but Amaranth and Rose is mine. _

_Warnings: Um. Maybe slight cussing, and probably some kind of violence. Definite yaoi._

_Pairings: Eventual LxLight and MelloxMatt_

_A/N: Thank you very much to all my reviewers! In particular, though, thanks to the one who pointed out a plot hole in my story (you know who you are). I had earlier shown Matt using a cell phone to contact Near, but later they acted like they'd never seen cell phones before. I've gone back and corrected chapter four (I changed a few of Dalil's rules, too) so anyone who doesn't know how dodo birds fit into this story should go check out the rewritten version. ~_^ Again, thank you all, hope you enjoy!_

xXxXxXxXxXx

There were many things in this world that Light Yagami was most assuredly not. For example, in no way was Light unintelligent. Quite the opposite, in fact. Another thing he was not was cowardly. Nor was he a sheep, someone who blindly followed the herd, someone easy to manipulate, someone willing to follow any authority as long as someone else did, too. No, Light was not a sheep.

With this fact firmly in mind, he lounged atop a flat outcropping of rock, feeling exceptionally like a sacrificial lamb.

_More like one of those sacrificial maidens_, he thought to himself, refining his metaphor. After all, a lamb was a weak sheep, and Light Yagami was not a sheep. _Like in all those legends where you offer up a pretty girl to appease a dragon. Do they have dragons here? Probably. Do they sacrifice pretty girls to them? …Did I just call myself a pretty girl…?_

He shook the entire mess out of his head, leaning back in an attitude of studied carelessness. This was not helping him look relaxed.

L and L had left him there with many assurances that they would be watching carefully, that he was in no danger. A load of bull all of it, but comforting to hear nonetheless.

_My job is just to sit on the rock. That's it. Sit on the rock. Don't think about the horde of soldiers probably already on their way to snatch me up and drag me to my death. Don't think about what will happen if Mello and Matt are just a few seconds too late. Don't think about what will happen if the Ls aren't able to save me before Kira's troops shoot me even if Kira does die. Don't think about never going home or the pain of dying or never being human again or leaving L or DAMN IT, LIGHT, JUST SIT ON THE ROCK!_

The brunet nekomata sighed and rubbed his temples. This wasn't helping him look relaxed, either. It didn't really matter to the plan if Kira suspected it was a trap or not (and he was bound to anyway) since he still wouldn't be expecting an airborne selkie sniper. But it might help if his guard was somewhat relaxed, which would only happen if he felt secure in his victory, which would only happen if he thought his own cleverness had caught Light, which would only happen if Light acted convincingly off-guard himself.

_This plan is too complicated…_ he groaned to himself, even though he knew it was glaringly simple. All he had to do was sit on the rock.

He had just about resigned himself to sitting on that damned rock all day and well into the night when something flew out of the surrounding boulders and crashed into his chest with the force of a decently-sized car. It was almost a relief to crack the back of his head on the ground, an achingly familiar black wolf positioned on his chest. Kira's troops had finally arrived.

"I think you gave me _another_ concussion," Light complained, his articulation somewhat hampered by the lack of oxygen in his crushed lungs.

"Idiots get what they deserve," Mikami informed him smugly. "You really aren't all that bright, are you? On the run, yet you still have enough time for a sunbath. Unbelievable."

"Sticks and stones," Light snarled. Okay, letting himself get taken prisoner was already hard enough on his ego. He was not going to sit here and let them insult his intelligence, too! "Can we get this over with already? I thought _I_ was the one who was supposed to play with his victims."

"You're right," the wolf growled and bared his teeth, inches from Light's nose. A thrill of doubt ran through him. What if they had misjudged the situation? What if Mikami was going to rip him to pieces right here, Dalil's rules be damned? Where were the Ls?

"But this time, you won't have the chance to escape," the werewolf assassin continued. He shifted, sliding off Light's chest and allowing the boy to grab a much-needed lungful of air.

With a slurping noise, all the fur on the canine's body was sucked into his pores, treating Light to the sight of a hairless wolf. Before he had time to take more than a disgusted glimpse, hair shot right back out of certain places on Mikami's body, weaving and matting itself together until it became a set of clothes, all black of course. Light realized that while he had been captivated by the formation of this seemingly-organic fabric, the wolf had rose onto its hind legs. Now there was one loud crunching noise as every bone in his body snapped into place, and Mikami was abruptly human. The whole thing had only taken two seconds, at most.

Light compared this transformation to the others he'd seen. It was less painful-looking than Mello's, but also less awe-inspiring. It was less graceful than Matt's, but smoother and less violent than tearing your own pelt off. All in all, he gave it a nine out of ten.

And, yes, he realized that his thoughts were nonsensical. He blamed his latest concussion. Or maybe it was the same concussion back for round two.

Four centaurs stepped out from behind Mikami (_How had they been hiding back there?_ Light thought bemusedly) and grabbed him. One went to work tying his arms behind his back, two menaced him with crossbows, and the last handed Mikami a pair of glasses, which the werewolf put on in as businesslike a way as one can put on a pair of glasses.

Once Light was properly secured, the centaur who had been binding him picked him up and placed him on the back of the other centaur who wasn't aiming a crossbow at him. Mikami mounted _that_ centaur, and the whole group moved off at a brisk trot. Light gritted his teeth and focused all his concentration on not falling off. Who knew horsehair could be so _slippery_? And he couldn't grip with his claws this time, either.

Still, he spared a moment of gratitude to the powers that be that they hadn't searched him. If they had, who knew what they might have thought of the handgun stashed down his pants' leg? Though, he thought with a grimace, if they had taken it from him, then it wouldn't be digging quite so painfully into his thigh at the moment.

Oh, well. Win some, lose some. It wasn't like he could use the thing, tied up as he was.

A particularly rough patch of ground jolted the nekomata and dragged his wandering attention back to the matter of staying upright. Light decided then and there that he hated horses. Passionately.

xXxXxXxXxXxXx

"I hate horses," Lawliet mumbled to himself. "Passionately." Ryuuzaki had nothing to say to this. They were the same person, weren't they? Did Ryuuzaki hate horses? After a moment of thought, he came to the conclusion that yes, he did hate horses.

Possibly because he was currently running barefoot through the foothills trying to keep up with one. Five to be precise, but really he was just trying to follow Near. Everything beyond that was lost behind the pain in his feet. He may have been in very good shape, especially for someone who ate so many sweets and spent so much time in front of a computer, but that didn't mean running barefoot outside was any easier on his feet. Nor, for that matter, did it mean keeping up with a trotting centaur was easy.

For the sake of his pride, however, the detective refused to acknowledge the pain shooting up his legs as every step brought his feet in contact with sharp rocks or pointy twigs or thorny plants. Lawliet had no such inhibitions, for all that he wasn't doing an ounce of physical work. He sat astride Near, complaining constantly about the plan, Light, Kira, and life in general. Ryuuzaki was about ready to drop-kick his doppelganger right off his steed, and he would have, too, if doing so wouldn't have put even more strain on his already-abused feet. He was starting to regret refusing to ride on Near, which was ridiculous, because he knew that he didn't make mistakes.

_Perhaps,_ he winced internally as his foot came down upon yet another sharp piece of gravel, _there is a first time for everything._

"I thank you for your vote of confidence, Lawliet," Near replied dryly.

"Not you, them," Lawliet clarified.

"What have you got to complain about?" Ryuuzaki let just a tinge of bitterness into his voice. All this physical discomfort was causing his mask to slip a bit.

"I dislike the idea of constantly chasing after strange centaurs that are running off with Light-kun," Lawliet clarified.

"I do not like it, either," Ryuuzaki replied, in the tone of voice that passed for a snap with him. "But it is vital to our plans, nevertheless."

"I once had a conversation with Light-kun," Lawliet changed the subject abruptly, "about subconsciousness. We agreed that there is a high probability that counterparts from each world share the same basic consciousness. I believe we made a miscalculation in that area."

"How so?"

"I find it difficult to believe that I am as… clinical as you are," Lawliet hesitated slightly. "You seem more emotionally detached from this situation than I am."

"That may be circumstantial," Ryuuzaki argued. "After all, you and Light-kun are… involved. It is only natural that you feel more strongly than I do in this matter." And here came another new sensation to the detective: hesitancy. Talking about his counterpart and Light being together made him uncomfortable, for whatever reason. It was something he had never experienced before, this unwillingness to talk about something so mundane.

"I think it runs deeper than that," Lawliet grunted slightly as Near stumbled in a slight dip in the land. Ryuuzaki, alerted by the centaur's fumble, leaped lightly over the depression and drew level with Lawliet's knees. "For instance," Lawliet continued, "what do you think of when you think of a rose?"

"A perennial flowering shrub or vine of the genus _Rosa_, within the family Rosaceae, containing over one hundred species. The species form a group of erect shrubs, and climbing or trailing plants, with stems that are often armed with sharp thorns. Most are native to Asia, with smaller numbers of species native to Europe, North America, and northwest Africa. Natives, cultivars and hybrids are all widely grown for their beauty and fragrance…" Ryuuzaki listed.

"Justice."

"I beg your pardon?" Ryuuzaki turned irritated eyes on his doppelganger. He should know better than anyone in either world how much Ryuuzaki hated to be interrupted! Much less by such an inane comment.

"When I think of a rose, I think of justice," Lawliet elucidated, "and of love."

"That is a romanticized fantasy," the L from Light's world didn't snort, but he came close to it. "A thing is simply a thing, and it holds no meaning beyond what we attach to it."

"There."

"I beg your pardon?" Ryuuzaki was getting _seriously_ irritated now. Was it too much to ask for a complete sentence on the first try?

"There is the difference between us."

Ryuuzaki had nothing to say to that. While his other was distracted, though, he took the opportunity to vault over Near's back and seat himself behind Lawliet in a single, fluid movement. There was little to no chance that neither one had noticed, but the chance of either commenting was just as low, and Ryuuzaki was too irritated and deeply in thought to care anymore.

Could something so simple truly be the root of all their differences? Could the L from this world just be more romantic than he? It was true, this L seemed more impulsive and emotional, but were those traits really the result of romanticism? It was perfectly possible to be romantic and cautious as well, after all.

On the other hand… this L was involved with Light. Ryuuzaki had always held that people were people were people. No one was better than any other, not even himself. He simply knew human nature well enough to exploit it better than most. This way of thinking had led him to the conclusion that love was scientifically ridiculous. It was merely a series of impulses to reproduce, tracing back to the animals from which humans evolved. Any other emotion was put there by humans whose thoughts were clouded by romantic thinking and poor judgment.

As such, he had never once in his life looked at a person and thought that she (or he, for that matter) was good-looking. People were people were people. No one was better than any other, not even physically.

_So, then, if I lack the faculties…_ Ryuuzaki hastily corrected himself. _No, not the faculties, the_ state of mind _with which to judge things aesthetically… could that impede romantic thinking? Roses came to symbolize love because they were… beautiful… didn't they?_ The detective flinched at having even _thought_ a word as unscientific as 'beautiful'.

_But if I know that others think of something as beautiful… no, that is akin to knowing that others like a flavor of ice cream that I myself don't care for. What do I find… beautiful?_

_Strawberries,_ came the immediate mental reply. _Cake. Sugar cubes. Cookies…_ _No, no, no. These are all things that I_ like. _What do I find_ beautiful?

_...Rain,_ he decided. _...Glass skyscrapers… cake still… Light…_

_Wait, what was that last one?_

"We have arrived," Ryuuzaki was jerked out of his thoughts by a dry voice as familiar to him… as his own. He saw that, indeed, they had arrived in Tokyo. As a matter of fact, they had been traveling in the city for some time on a street parallel to the one taken by Kira's troops, and were now within sight of Kira's castle.

"I have discovered a slight flaw in our plan," Near spoke calmly.

"I have, too," Lawliet droned in the voice he usually reserved for delivering bad news. Ryuuzaki quickly took stock of the situation, slightly in shock that he had zoned out for the first time in his life. He saw the problem within moments.

Their role was to whisk Light away after Matt had sniped Kira. This, however, was impossible if they were on the opposite side of the wall from him. But they were sure to be noticed if they attempted to slip through the gates behind Light's captors. If the alarm was raised, then Matt might not be able to get a shot off.

And whatever decision they were going to make had to be made _right then, _because Light's group was already halfway through the gates.

Raise the alarm? Or stay where they couldn't help Light? Ryuuzaki bit down on this thumbnail. He had just opened his mouth to order Near to remain where he was (the overall plan was more important that just Light's safety, after all… wasn't it?) when he found himself facedown on the pavement, a blossoming pain in his side.

"Pleh!" the detective peeled himself off the ground, spitting to rid his mouth of the taste of asphalt. He looked up just in time to see Near canter, limping, through the closing gates, ducking his head and waving sheepishly at the guards as if he were part of the group guarding Light come a bit late because of a stone in his hoof.

Lawliet merely sat up straight on Near's back, made no attempt to hide, and looked as if he had every right to be there. It was a good ruse, Ryuuzaki admitted, since no one could possibly know what L looked like. And who else but one of Kira's troops would ride so ostentatiously through the gate like that?

"Lawliet…!" Ryuuzaki gritted his teeth and punched the nearest wall in a display of temper unlike anything he'd ever done before. It seemed this was a day for firsts. "Damn it! Why does everyone always leave me behind?!"

_A/N: O.O Truly, I have an excuse this time. (Don't I always? But seriously.) My new kitten, Kiba… he just died of Corona Virus after a few weeks of suffering. I kind of wasn't in the mood for fanfiction… not to mention my fickle mind has discovered -Man and fallen in love… Sorry. Sorry. Thanks to all of you for sticking with me._


	12. The Amaranth

_Title: Amaranth and Rose_

_Author: YearOfTheKitty_

_Beta: 8 (Yay! XD)_

_Disclaimer: I don't own Death Note, but Amaranth and Rose is mine. _

_Warnings: Um. Maybe slight cussing, and probably some kind of violence. Definite yaoi._

_Pairings: Eventual LxLight and MelloxMatt_

_A/N: I think I phrased something strangely in A/N at the end of the last chapter. When I said I'd fallen in love with -Man, I meant the anime/manga. It's not an actual person… I think some of you thought it was. o/////O I love you all anyway!_

xXxXxXxXxXxXx

_Baptized with a perfect name_

_The doubting one by heart_

_Alone without himself_

_War between him and the day_

_Need someone to blame_

_In the end, little he can do alone_

_You believe but what you see_

_You received but what you give_

xXxXxXxXxXxXx

"Hurry it up, birdbrain!" Matt called over the rushing wind. "If they kill Light before we get there, L… Lawliet… is gonna be _pissed_."

"How about this?" Mello screeched back. "How about _you_ try flying directly into a headwind that's so strong it nearly puts out the fire on your wings while _I_ sit on your back and tell you what a crappy job you're doing?"

"Less whining, more flapping," Matt commanded. Mello growled inarticulately, but said nothing else. The wind had picked up again. The selkie adjusted his awkward grip. He was used to flying on Mello's back, but this time both of his hands were occupied with holding the sniper rifle, so he could only grip his boyfriend's sides with his knees.

_That sounded_ so _dirty taken out of context_, Matt peered through orange-tinted lenses at the ground below and wished he had a cigarette. Then again, if the wind was dousing even Mello's flames, his cig wouldn't last a second.

The phoenix, meanwhile, labored to make headway, flapping until he thought his wings would pop out of their sockets with the strain. Eventually, he decided to take a risk. He dropped altitude a bit to where the wind was less strong, but where he was more likely to be spotted and shot down.

"I see it," he reported a few minutes later. Kira's castled loomed ahead on its ridge. The golden bird angled upwards to gain the altitude he'd lost. "Get ready."

"What's to get ready?"

"I don't know. Does the damn thing need to be primed?" Mello snapped, thinking of a crossbow.

"…"

"Please tell me you know how to work this thing, Matt, because we did _not_ just spend an entire night practicing for you to tell me that you don't even know if it has to be primed…!"

"Mello. I was turning the safety off. Chill," Matt spoke in short, economical phrases that never failed to piss the avian off.

"Answer me when I ask you something!" Mello ordered.

"Yes, sir," Matt saluted lazily.

"And don't let go of that thing! If you drop it…!"

"Jesus Christ, Mell, stop nagging," Matt snarled. "I've got the damn thing under control, okay?"

"…Fine," Mello huffed. He leveled off and began circling one of the uppermost towers, much as he had done on the day he had first rescued Light. "Can you see Kira yet?"

"Hold on…" Matt leaned out as far as he dared, squinting between Mello's pumping wings and swirling flames. He didn't so much as flinch at the fiery tendrils as they scorched any exposed skin. He was used to it. "…I think so. A bunch of troops and Light just came in the gate… and is that Lawliet and Near? Damn it… One of the Ls and Near followed them in. They're standing by the wall and nobody's looking at them, thankfully. What the hell were they thinking?"

"Where's Kira?" Mello demanded again.

"Don't have a stroke, man," Matt mumbled. "Yeah, there he is now. He's come out and he's talking to Light now."

"On three I'll go into a dive," Mello instructed. "Let's do this. One…"

"Mello?"

"Yeah?"

"Don't die."

"I won't. That's three, then! Here we go!" Mello let out an eagle's screech and folded his wings, beak aimed at the courtyard far below as he fell, trailing flames like a golden comet.

xXxXxXxXxXxXx

_Caress the one, the never-fading_

_Rain in your heart_

_The tears of snow-white sorrow_

_Caress the one, the hiding amaranth_

_In a land of the daybreak_

xXxXxXxXxXxXx

"Well, well, well," Kira smirked. "If it isn't our little lost kitty come back to us."

"You're a neko, too, you know," Light pointed out. "Any joke you make about me can be turned right back onto you."

"Don't talk to my Kira like that!" Misa, who was standing behind Kira just as she had been the first time he had seen her, screeched. "Know your place!"

"Only one of us, however, is handcuffed and under armed guard," Kira pointed out lazily, as if Misa hadn't spoken. The blonde neko pouted at being ignored and appeared to be on the verge of breaking out into an obnoxious whine when Light interrupted.

"So how are you going to do this, then?" he arched one eyebrow. "I very much doubt you've ever gotten your hands dirty in your entire life."

"Be quiet!" Kira commanded. He turned to the nearest centaur and snatched away his crossbow, aiming it at Light in clearly-inexperienced hands. "You know nothing about me. I am God!"

"_I_ know nothing about you?" Light had to laugh (a bit hysterically, he admitted) at that. "I _am_ you! And neither one of us is God." The laughter faded, and Light drew back his lips from his teeth in a snarl. "As a matter of fact, I believe that of the two of us, you're the most contemptible. You killed your own—_our_ own!—little sister, not to mention mother and father!"

"I told you to be quiet!" Kira snarled right back. His fingers tightened on the trigger, causing Light to break out in a cold sweat. He really didn't want to die… especially not here in this mixed-up fantasy-world. Where were Matt and Mello? He could only stall Kira for so long…

As if summoned by his thoughts, there was a birdlike screech from above them. All heads snapped up to look at the sky. A fiery phoenix dropped from above like an avenging angel. A series of events then took place almost simultaneously, though to Light's hyperaware senses they seemed to last for hours.

Kira's eyes flicked back to Light, spitting something unintelligibly as he pulled the crossbow's trigger.

Dalil appeared behind Kira's shoulder, grinning hollowly at Light and mouthing the words 'you lose'.

There was the sound of a gunshot mixed in with avian shrieks.

Something impacted into the small of Light's back, sending him stumbling forward into Kira. Both nekomata crashed to the earth in a tangle of limbs. An instant later, a searing pain, as if someone had shoved a red-hot poker into his skin, slammed into his chest. His scream of pain mixed in with someone else's. Kira's? No…

L's.

xXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

_Apart from the wandering pack_

_In this brief flight of time_

_We reach for the ones who ever dare_

_You believe but what you see_

_You receive but what you give_

xXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

Ryuuzaki lost no more time on self-pity. The centaurs that were supposed to be patrolling the walls had yet to appear. The detective would guess that they had stopped what they were doing in favor of watching the drama in the courtyard. He gritted his teeth as the image of centaurs laughing over Light's bloody corpse rose unbidden into his mind.

Banishing the thought, he bounded over to the wall and began to scale it. The stones were old and most of the mortar had long since crumbled away, giving Ryuuzaki easy hand- and footholds. Unfortunately, it also meant the edges had been rounded off by wind and rain, making the going treacherous. Nevertheless, the black-haired detective climbed with reckless speed, only pausing every now and then when his foot or hand slipped to readjust.

He quickly reached the top and poked his head over the lip, checking left and right for any centaur guards. There were none in sight. Sighing at the lax security, Ryuuzaki began to haul himself over the edge.

He was forestalled by a familiar screech. Obsidian eyes swiftly located the descending phoenix. He scrambled across the walkway atop the wall and leaned over the edge, taking in all that was happening with shock.

The shinigami Dalil stood watching the drama as well, laughing. Matt and Kira opened fire at the same time with their respective weapons, Matt on Kira and Kira on Light.

"No!" Ryuuzaki yelped. Almost before the sound had left his lips, Lawliet was shoving Light aside (when had he got there? Everything was happening so fast…). Light fell into Kira's legs, and they both fell.

Though not before Kira's wayward shot punched straight through Lawliet's chest, and Matt's bullet impacted into Light's torso. Twin fountains of scarlet blood appeared, and both young men lay dangerously still.

"Shit!" Mello pulled up sharply.

"No! _Light!_" The hoarse scream was torn from Ryuzaki's throat as he lunged forward, barely seeing all that passed around him. Everything seemed to have fallen into that horrible slow motion of dreams. "_No!_" he screamed again, unable to fight his way forward before—

Desperately, he threw himself over the wall, not even caring about the sickening crunch from his ankle when he landed. His mind was full of the image of Light's blood and his own pooling on the dusty ground. The black-haired man crawled as fast as he could to the fallen pair, having discovered that his ankle would no longer support him.

xXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

_Caress the one, the never-fading_

_Rain in your heart_

_The tears of snow-white sorrow_

_Caress the one, the hiding amaranth_

_In a land of the daybreak_

xXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

The sky was overcast. Grayish clouds huddled together in the sky, filtering the light through them so that it seemed dirty and dim. Lawliet could clearly see this from where he lay on his back, staring at the sky. He hoped that it wouldn't start raining. That would be far too cliché for even his romantic mind.

His view of the sky was blocked by his own frantic face. This confused him for a moment, until he realized that his alter-ego must have somehow found his way into the courtyard after all. That was good.

"Lawliet! Lawliet!" the world rocked, as if someone was shaking him, though he could feel nothing. Feeling returned when something pressed against the wound in his chest, and he groaned in pain. The pressure was immediately removed.

"Hold on!" Ryuuzaki's face cried. He saw the lips move, but his sense of hearing seemed to be off on vacation with his sense of touch. The face vanished, leaving him an unobstructed view of the sky again. Despite his earlier wish, two drops of water splattered on his forehead and cheek as the rain began.

Ryuuzaki reappeared, except that he was now holding something. It was a small glass vial on a silver chain, full of a clear liquid like thick water. The amaranth nectar, he dimly realized. Ryuuzaki was going to use it to heal him. There was something wrong with that, though… What was it? He shouldn't use the amaranth nectar… someone else needed it…

Light needed the nectar.

A pale hand reached out to latch onto Ryuuzaki's wrist, halting him in the act of tipping the vial, and Lawliet thought it might have been his. His lips moved weakly, but he couldn't be sure if he was making any sound since his ears still refused to work. Ryuuzaki's head was shaking, but Lawliet's lips continued to move in a single continuous motion that had become achingly familiar in such a short amount of time.

"_Light… Light… Light…_"

xXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

_Reaching, searching, for something untouched_

_Hearing voices of the never-fading calling_

_Calling_

xXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

Ryuuzaki shook his head at first, unwilling to leave Lawliet—himself!—to die. The rain began coming down harder, but still his doppelganger weakly pleaded for him to give the nectar to Light.

Finally, when the weak hand had dropped from his wrist as if too tired to maintain its hold any longer, Ryuuzaki moved. He scooted to Light's prone form, sprawled half-on the legs of an unconscious Kira. (who must have hit his head when he fell. A cruel irony.) His pajama top was practically soaked in red liquid, and his tail was as limp as cooked spaghetti.

Ryuuzaki gathered the boy's auburn head into his lap, tilting his chin up. He uncorked the vial of nectar with his teeth and held the rim to Light's lips.

He would always, always, remember that single instant of hesitation before he tipped it and poured the healing brew down the boy's throat. He hurled the glass vial away when it was empty, listening to it shatter somewhere. Tears streamed down his face, mixing with the rain that was now falling. Distantly, he could hear the sounds of Matt, Mello, and Near fending off Kira's guards, Mikami, and even a hysterical Misa.

A single, rattling breath left Light's lips. His hand crept up to his chest, as if feeling for the wound. His shirt was still soaked in blood, but the skin on his chest seemed to be smooth and unbroken once more. Ryuuzaki relinquished his hold on the boy as he levered himself into a sitting position, rubbing his head absently.

His fingers froze. His other hand flew up to his head, urgently combing through the copper strands. No fur met his questing fingers. No ears. The hands slowly migrated down the side of his head to be met with a curved shell of skin and cartilage. He didn't need to feel his backside to know that his tail was gone, though he ran his tongue over his teeth anyway to find that his fangs were gone as well, and his claws, too.

He was human again.

"L…" he turned to Ryuuzaki in wonderment. His eyes widened even further. "Why are you crying?"

"Lawliet…" was all Ryuuzaki could get out. Was it narcissistic of him to grieve for his own doppelganger's death? Perhaps, but the tears flowed down his face nevertheless. He watched numbly as Light scrambled to Lawliet's side, honey eyes popping with panic.

"Lawliet! Lawliet! L!" he screamed frantically, shaking his shoulders exactly as Ryuuzaki had done earlier. There was no response.

"No… don't die…" Light was crying now, too. Why wasn't Lawliet moving? He was the amaranth; amaranths didn't die!

Except… they did when they were uprooted, Lawliet had said. And then a new one grew in its place… one just as deceptively beautiful as the first…

Lawliet wasn't the amaranth, Light realized.

_He_ was.

As soon as Light died, someone else believing in their own perfection would rise up on his ideals (Misa? Or his world's Mikami?) and take up the mantle themselves. Meanwhile, nearly everyone in the world followed Ryuuzaki's way of thinking, and when one of them died ten more replaced it. Roses were beautiful. Justice was a rose, not an amaranth.

"Light…kun…" a weak voice whispered.

"Lawliet!" Light clutched the detective's shoulders, embracing him. "Lawliet, don't die, please!"

"Amaranths don't die…" Lawliet's lips twitched into a sad mockery of a smile.

"You're a rose," Light sobbed.

"I see…" Lawliet's dusky obsidian eyes slowly slid shut, though they remained locked on Light's. "I was… right…" His final breath was expelled with a swoosh.

And Light screamed.

xXxXxXxXxXxXx

_Caress the one, the never-fading_

_Rain in your heart_

_The tears of snow-white sorrow_

_Caress the one, the hiding amaranth_

_In a land of the daybreak_

xXxXxXxXxXxXx

A/N: This chapter didn't turn out as well as I would have liked… but it's okay, I suppose. I wrote it in the style of my Kingdom Hearts fic (Moon's Melody) because I thought it would be cool. What do you think? The story will only last one or two more chapters, by the way. Thank you for staying with me so far, I love all of you!


	13. The Final Name

_Title: Amaranth and Rose_

_Author: YearOfTheKitty_

_Beta: I'm too embarrassed to bother .8 anymore, so it's unbeta'd._

_Disclaimer: I don't own Death Note, but Amaranth and Rose is mine. _

_Warnings: Cursing in this chap, and violence. Definite yaoi._

_Pairings: LxLight and MelloxMatt_

_A/N: See my profile for abject groveling. This one's short, but there'll be two more after it instead of just one an epilogue. Hope you enjoy, and please try to overlook it if it seems strange. My writing style has changed significantly since the last time I updated A&R._

"Hey… you okay?"

The highly inappropriate question came from somewhere behind Light. He had stopped screaming moments ago, all of his energy vanished along with his ears and tail. It sounded like Matt, he thought. Out of all of them, the selkie was the closest to being diplomatic, but this question seemed so grossly out-of-place that Light would have laughed had he had any energy left. How could he possibly be okay?

"What happened to the guards?" he eventually mumbled.

"Mello shot a bunch of them, so the rest got scared and ran," Matt reported. "Those things really do work wonders. Bringing them over was a good idea."

"Actually," a new voice broke in, "it wasn't." Light looked up now, unable to muster any surprise at the sight before him. Dalil, grinning maniacally and generally looking as pleased as a shinigami could.

"What do you want?" he demanded.

"I want you to kill yourself," Dalil grinned. "Quickly, before I lose my patience."

"Technically, hasn't he still got twenty days to do it?" Mello broke in, casting the crumpled form of Kira a dark look. "We can take our time. This bastard shot L. I want to make him pay for it."

"I suppose," Dalil conceded, tapping her chin thoughtfully. "But I want to see you kill him. It will be so entertaining!" Light sighed heavily. It seemed that either Dalil had somehow leeched his own energy, or the shinigami simply became more animated when surrounded by death and misery. That thought brought Light's gaze back to the still body still clutched to his chest. Slowly, painfully, he managed to loosen his grip and let L, L's body, rest upon the ground. Mud and blood mixed together to stain his white shirt amber-red. The color of Light's eyes.

"We do not have much time before Kira's guards recover from their scare and return," Near warned. "It would be prudent to hurry."

"If you don't kill him now, you'll have to wait until I check back to go home," Dalil told Light. The former nekomata used both hands to shove himself to his feet, the movement seeming to require far more effort than it used to.

"Okay," he said. "Okay. I'll do it." After all, this was, in Mello's words, the bastard who had shot L. He could summon some anger to help him through it… couldn't he? The answer seemed to be no. The thought did nothing to lessen his lethargy. His hand crept down and pulled out the handgun he had stashed in his waistband, the cool metal immediately become slick in the now-pouring rain.

"Light-kun, are you sure…?" for a moment, Light started violently. L? He cast a swift glance over his shoulder, only then remembering. There were two Ls. Lawliet was dead. It was Ryuuzaki who had spoken. He turned away without answering. It was painful to look at him. He was the exact double of Lawliet, in every way except the one that mattered most…

"I'll do it," he repeated numbly, lifting the gun, which seemed to have doubled in weight since he had first pulled it out. In spite of this, he managed to get it high enough to aim directly at the center of the fallen nekomata's forehead. His finger tightened on the trigger.

Nothing happened.

Light threw the gun down in frustration. "I can't do it!" he snarled. A human imitation now, instead of a true snarl.

"Why the fuck not?!" Mello was incensed. "This is the guy that just _KILLED L_. Your boyfriend. Doesn't that mean anything to you, you spineless piece of shit?!"

"Mell…" Matt tried to calm the phoenix's anger, to no avail.

"If he can't do it, I'll do it myself!" Mello drew out his own handgun, pointing it with unerring accuracy at Kira's chest. Light opened his mouth… to protest? He didn't know. But open it he did, even if he didn't get a chance to make a sound.

There was a soft _fwhoosh_ from somewhere close by, followed by a sudden sting across the side of Light's face closest to Mello. The sting grew into a burning pain, and Light leaped away, clutching his cheek and gaping in shock. There, behind him, was a dragon.

_Well, that answers my question from before…_

The dragon reared back, preparing to shoot another jet of flame at the assorted gathering of beings, just as it had done moments earlier. Its neck stiffened, and a waterfall of crimson fire poured from between stalactite teeth in an attempt to engulf Matt—its new target. The selkie yelped in surprise and dove to the side, swearing loudly as his shoulder hit the ground hard. Mello, beside him, wasn't as lucky.

The phoenix let out a very birdlike screech as the fire caught in his hair. He lifted his hands to beat at the flames, but his gloves only caught fire as well, and he was soon only spreading them. Matt was on his feet in an instant, yanking off his goggles and whipping his sealskin out to its full size before throwing it not over himself, but over Mello. The skin became a writhing, screeching bundle for a few moments while Matt pounded on it, using his own skin as a blanket to smother the fire.

Light, however, had no time to notice any of this. He was too busy dodging gouts of flames spat at him by the dragon. It was a small one as dragons went—only about the size of a bus as opposed to, say, a building. Surprisingly, this was little comfort to Light as he ducked beneath a swipe from claws as big as bus tires.

"You!" the dragon hissed, its yellow eyes spitting flame just as surely as its mouth. The voice was oddly familiar, and not at all serpentine. "You killed Lord Kira! You killed God!"

"Mikami…?" L sounded incredulous. His mind appeared to kick into gear a moment later. "He must have been concealing his true nature as a shapeshifter, merely allowing the world to think him a werewolf so as to catch them off-guard and heighten Kira's ability to have people assassinated and make it look like an accident. That must be how he killed his family."

"Fascinating!" Light shouted, throwing himself to the ground. He felt a rush of displaced air as the tip of Mikami-dragon's tail whipped through where his head had been. "Help!"

BLAM. BLAM. BLAM.

Three bullets ricocheted off of Mikami's scales in quick succession, kicking up small explosions of dirt as they flew wide. The dragon roared and turned on the shooter, Matt, none the worse for the wear.

"Guns aren't working!" the selkie cried, diving to the side once more. In one hand he held the sniper rifle, the other curled around a limp Mello's waist. The phoenix didn't stir, even as his boyfriend tossed him roughly out of harm's way, bouncing across the ground like a broken doll. But he wasn't ashes, Light saw, so he couldn't be dead. That was surprisingly relieving. He must have gotten more sentimental than he had thought.

"How do we kill him, then?" Light demanded, running around behind the dragon, leaping over his tail to come around beside the redheaded gamer.

"Why ask me? I've never fought a shifter in real life!" he grunted, firing off a few more rounds. The last few in the rifle, as it was. They had no more effect than the first shots had.

Light's amber eyes roved frantically, searching for something—anything—to help them out of this mess. There were no weapons nearby except for Kira's crossbow, but that was unlikely to have any more effect than Matt's rifle. Dalil stood by Light's counterpart, whooping with laugher and not lifting a finger to either help them or avoid the gusts of flame that occasionally surged around her, leaving her unscathed. L and Near and Matt darted around like ants from a kicked anthill, doing their best to keep away from both the shinigami and the shapeshifter. The castle behind them, though… if they could get into that, it might give them a few minutes to think up a plan or pick up a weapon before Mikami could follow.

The brunet began to run in towards L, intending to share his plan so that the dragon couldn't hear, but stopped as he raced past Dalil. Or, more specifically, his felled doppelganger. Or, even more specifically, the small, soggy item that his foot had just unearthed from the mud as he raced past…

Light, suddenly calm amidst the chaos, bent down and lifted the item. He brushed mud away from it, his eyes slightly glazed. Dalil laughed even harder, drawing the attention of Ryuuzaki.

"Light-kun…? What are you doing?" he shouted across the courtyard.

"Keep him busy!" was Light's reply. He knelt down by the prone form of… himself, and began frantically searching through the pockets of Kira's suit. It had to be in here somewhere…

Sure enough, a moment later, he found it.

Light lifted the pen triumphantly and flipped open the Death Note on his knees. The sheer number of names contained within sickened him. This Death Note was more like a telephone book than a notebook. He flipped to the very back and set the tip of the pen lightly against the page.

At the last second, he hesitated. Could he do this? He had done it so many times before, so easily, not really giving a second thought to his actions (after the first time, that is). Was he really able to kill, unsupported by the knowledge that his judgment was infallible? Could he cut down another living thing—a living thing that he had recently come to realize was neither better nor worse than himself?

Could he use the Death Note again without corrupting himself once more?

He had to. That was what galvanized Light to make the first stroke across the pristine page. It wasn't the false sense of responsibility to the world that now drove his hand across the paper. It was the knowledge that if one more neither-better-nor-worse being did not die now, then three more, along with Light himself, would die instead.

_His friends_. Light stared at the page, but all he saw was a glint of orange goggles, barking laughter at him. A flare of fire on golden feathers, flicking ashes at him tauntingly. Clopping hooves, never faltering, never far. A fish dangling teasingly above his head, and a stoic voice teasing him along with it. Then, finally, a concerned expression and a clumsy attempt at consolation, coupled with fiery anger and shared loss.

His friends. He couldn't let them die. He had no love for Mikami, the one who had tried to kill them and capture them, the one who had given him numerous head injuries in a brief period of time and who was now attempting to murder his only friends.

_He had to. He had to._ It was this mantra that drove Light's pen across the paper, guiding every stroke until the name glared accusingly up at him, written in large, shaky letters.

_Teru Mikami._

One…

Two…

Three…

Light counted silently, staring down at the name. Behind him, he could hear the continued sounds of a struggle and wondered idly if Matt and Near and Ryuuzaki were all still living.

_He had to. He had to._

Twenty-three…

Twenty-four…

_He had to._

Thirty.

There was a sudden cessation in the bellows of rage. A choked sound, almost human, replaced it. After a short silence, there was a sudden thump followed by a soft hiss like that of falling sand. Light turned apathetically to look at the human body spread-eagled in the mud, making no move to blink away the rain that was now falling in its eyes.

_He had to._

"Light-kun!" L came running, looking frantic. "You used the Death Note? Are you sure that was wise?"

"Is Mello okay?" Light asked monotonously. If he'd been feeling more like himself—_if Lawliet hadn't just died in his arms_—he might have found the sudden role-reversal of emotionless vs. passionate funny.

"He has suffered some facial burns, but it is only superficial. He will be fine," Ryuuzaki now approached Light slowly, as if the boy held a bomb that threatened to go off at any moment. "Perhaps you should put the Death Note down," he suggested.

"You're okay, too? And Matt and Near?"

"We are all fine, Light-kun," Ryuuzaki adopted a talking-to-crazy-people tone. "Please put it down. Mikami is dead; you don't need it any longer."

"That's good," Light completely disregarded his warnings, reaching out to his side to pick another item from the muck. A quick swipe of his sleeve revealed the shape of his handgun. Ryuuzaki relaxed, thinking that he was about to kill Kira and finally end it all.

And, indeed, that was exactly what Light planned.

"Goodbye, then," the teen smiled sadly, lifting the gun to point at his own temple.

A final gunshot split the air.


	14. Goodbye

_Title: Amaranth and Rose_

_Author: YearOfTheKitty_

_Beta: I'm too embarrassed to bother .8 anymore, so it's unbeta'd._

_Disclaimer: I don't own Death Note, but Amaranth and Rose is mine. _

_Warnings: Cursing in this chap, and violence. Definite yaoi._

_Pairings: LxLight and MelloxMatt_

_A/N: Well, there's just the epilogue left. Hope you enjoy it, and hope you check out some of my new stories afterwards! _

xXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

Light's eyes were wide open, staring straight ahead without seeing. They might as well have been brown marbles for all the difference it would have made. His hands were limp now, fingers uncurled, the gun they once held lying somewhere in the ever-deepening mud by his side. Ryuuzaki stood motionless, staring, his mind too busy churning through what had happened in an attempt to make sense of it all to bother with movement. Eventually, slowly he turned his head back to the source of the gunshot. The handgun was splattered with rain, smearing the metal and distorting even the small blobs of color that were all that it reflected of the real world. Even more slowly, Ryuuzaki's eyes turned to the gunman.

"What… the… _fuck_?!" Mello snarled between heavy pants. Despite the pain he must have been in, his face was twisted into the most fearsome snarl L had ever seen—including the Mikami-dragon. This was partially because the entire left side of his face was red and burnt, almost melted-looking. His arm, outflung and still clutching the gun, shook slightly with the force of his breath and with his own pain. Matt hurried to his boyfriend's side, kneeling down, heedless of the sealskin beneath them that was being trampled into the mud.

"You…" Light lifted his hand, disbelieving. He brushed his fingers over his temple, remembering the bullet that had rushed so close to his head that his hair had been lifted, startling him into dropping his own gun before he'd fired. "Why did you…?"

"Why did _you_?" Mello shot back. "I was being suffocated by this fuckwit, passed out, and what do I see when I wake up? You, about to blow your own damn brains out for no goddamned reason. So I repeat: what the _fuck?_"

"I was trying to commit suicide, obviously," Light growled. "Why is that so hard to understand?"

"What, because L got offed?" Mello glanced over at the still body a few feet away, his snarl never dropping and tone never faltering. "Look, I'm pissed about that, too, you know—probably more than you, having known him for a bit longer than a few weeks—but you don't see me going around trying to shoot myself."

"You…" Light wilted a little. Yeah, Mello had a point: despite what they'd had, really he hadn't known Lawliet for a fraction of the time the phoenix, selkie, and centaur had. Even so… "That's not it. Or, that's not all of it."

"Enlighten us."

"One of us has to die," Light glanced down at himself. "…I can't do it. I can't shoot him. I tried and it didn't work. But if I kill myself, I don't have to watch me die. It's easier this way, not to mention…" He glanced at Ryuuzaki, then away.

"If Light-kun goes home, he will die anyway," the detective filled in the blank. "Because he has confessed to being a mass murderer."

"So if I kill myself, it spares Ryuuzaki the trouble of arrest and all that, Dalil's game is done so the shinigami are satisfied, and you all can kill Kira like you want to," Light listed. "Everybody wins." _And I can be with Lawliet sooner…_

"That's really bleak, man," Matt mumbled.

"There's no other way," Light countered.

"If you would just man up and shoot him…" Mello began.

"Light-kun's entire argument," Ryuuzaki suddenly broke in, "hinges on the idea that his death is inevitable."

"Well," Light blinked. "It is."

"Unless L does not arrest you," Near corrected, anticipating what the doppelganger of his deceased predecessor was thinking.

"But you're going to… right?" Light was shocked. "L, I've killed hundreds—thousands, even! You can't just let me go!"

"Light-kun is unusually eager for his own death," L noted. "But that death would not be necessary… if there was no evidence, no leads, and no confession."

"You can't undo the past, L," Light snapped, looking again at the body to the side.

"No," L turned to look at the object still balanced across Light's knees. "But you can forget it."

xXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

"So, let me get this straight," Mello said some time later. "Kitty-boy—or, former kitty-boy—is going to go back to his own world and _forget any of this ever happened_? Does that seem damn pointless to anybody else?"

"You should listen before you speak, Mello," Near sighed with the weight of the world. "Light will not forget coming to our world, he will simply forget why he did and what sent him. More than likely, he will believe it all to have been a dream. He will also forget that he was ever Kira in his own world."

"That still doesn't fix the problem," Matt pointed out. "Ryuuzaki still knows it was Light, so he'll still have to arrest him."

"Were any of you actually listening?" Light demanded. "After I give up the Death Note in my world, L will take it and then give it up. That way neither of us will remember any of it. Since the Kira in my world will obviously disappear after that, there's no reason for him to arrest me anymore."

"Is there a Misa and a Mikami in your world, too?" Near inquired idly.

"Oh, yeah," Light frowned. He hadn't thought about Misa in… well, since he'd left his own world. It seemed like a lot longer than it actually had been. "I'll convince Misa to give up her own Note before I give up mine."

"I think there is one thing that all of you are forgetting." Five heads turned towards the skull-headed shinigami curiously. "One Kira still has to die by the other's hand. You should be thankful that your previous plan did not work, else your life would be forfeit according to my rules. Only you may shoot the fatal bullet, remember?"

There was a long moment of silence, during which everyone exchanged looks of mixed shock and disbelief.

"Well damn…" Matt summed it up in two words.

"That… might have turned out badly," Light said haltingly.

"Idiot," Mello snarled. "It was _your_ idea!"

"Whatever," Light quickly changed the subject. "It didn't happen, so it doesn't matter. Dalil, if you could open a portal back to my world…?"

"Sure," Dalil shrugged. "The game's pretty much over anyway." The shinigami wandered away to shove her hand through the wall of the castle, creating the third inter-dimensional portal Light had ever seen. After this day, he hoped he never saw a fourth.

"You go on ahead, Ryuuzaki," he said. "I'll… take care of things here on my own."

"You are sure?" wide, dark-rimmed eyes regarded the teen carefully. "You will kill him yourself?" _And not yourself this time?_

"Yeah," Light nodded firmly. "I can do it this time. I have to. And in a day or so… I won't even remember doing it, so… I'll be fine. You go on ahead."

"We've gotta get the flaming wonder here to a hospital anyway," Matt put in. Then, in a mumble, "Thank _God _he didn't reincarnate this time…"

"I, too, must leave," Near agreed. "Measures must be taken to ensure as little bloodshed as possible. Do not forget that we have just toppled the political and spiritual leader of the world from his throne. This will not be well-received in many areas. And a replacement government must be installed…"

"And I bet you think you'll be the one to lead it, huh?!" Mello flared up, little tongues of flame appearing around the ends of his hair. "Well think again, you bastard! I'm not gonna go to any hospitals and leave _you_ to set up your own Nearocracy!"

"That is not a word," the centaur pointed out tiredly, twirling his hair idly as he turned and began to clop slowly away.

"Don't you turn your back on me!" Mello hollered, leaping to his feet and racing after his rival, apparently rejuvenated by a fresh burst of hatred.

"Nice knowing you," Matt picked up his discarded skin and began to re-fold it into a strap once more. He pulled the goggles back over his eyes when he'd finished, blowing a long-suffering sigh. "It's been real, man."

"Won't those burns hurt once you put that on again?" Light asked curiously.

"Nah, they're already healed, see? I'll just have some wicked scars. It was worth it," Matt shrugged. "Later. Try not to get killed." And with this piece of sage advice, the selkie turned away and began trudging after his friends, his hand fumbling around in his pocket for his Gameboy.

"They exist in our world, right?" Light asked L without taking his eyes off of the retreating figures.

"Yes," L assured him. Then, after a pause, "…As twelve-year-olds."

"What?!" Light turned to the detective with round eyes. L was not looking sheepish, but the potential was definitely there.

"I do not understand the age difference either, but at least they are alive, yes?"

"I guess," Light conceded. Still… twelve-year-olds? That was going to take some getting used to…

Except that it wouldn't, because he would forget them entirely in just a few days.

"The portal is ready," Dalil called from where she stood by the swirling circle of colors.

Light took a deep breath. "Go on, L. I'll be there in a few minutes, I promise."

"I believe you," L stated quietly. He moved towards the shinigami, pausing by the brunet's side for a moment to lay a hand on his shoulder in a gesture of support. Then, just as quickly, he was gone, stepping into the portal.

L had to take his own deep breath as he stepped through the wall. This was it. He was going home. He glanced at Dalil's face, to be met with the same eerie grin that graced the countenance of every skull since the dawn of time. Glancing back a little further, he caught a last glimpse of Light as he fell forward. The teen was standing over his own fallen body, a gun clasped in his trembling hands, his face stamped with fearful determination.

The view was swallowed up as everything became chaos and noise and motion. It was just as terrifying as it had been the first time, except that now L had no one to hold onto to steady himself.

The last thing he heard as he stumbled out into the halls of his hotel was the haunting laughter of Dalil.

"Whoo-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo!"


	15. Epilogue: And So They Lived

_Title: Amaranth and Rose_

_Author: YearOfTheKitty_

_Beta: I'm too embarrassed to bother .8 anymore, so it's unbeta'd._

_Disclaimer: I don't own Death Note, but Amaranth and Rose is mine. _

_Warnings: Cursing in this chap, and violence. Definite yaoi._

_Pairings: LxLight and MelloxMatt_

_A/N: And here it is, the final chapter of the most popular fanfic I've ever written (and the third longest). It's a short one. Congrats if you made it through all three chapters in one go, though. Since I don't want to ruin the end of the fic by putting it there, I'll say it right here: I'm pretty much done with the Death Note fandom. I'm sorry… Really I am, you guys are all the greatest ever. I just… ran out of steam for it. But soon after I upload this, I'll be posting the first chapters of a few other fics I've written for fandoms like Kingdom Hearts, Tales of Symphonia, and -Man. Check them out if you see one you like. Other than that, I love you all in as sincere a way as you can platonically love someone! Hope you had fun!_

xXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

"I hope I am not disturbing Light-kun's sleep," a voice droned, monotonous and bored. "But I do ask that he removes his head from the keyboard before his drool sticks the keys together."

"Uhh…" Light moaned, his mind swimming slowly back to consciousness. Honey-brown eyes slowly cracked open, to be met with two odd gray circles right in front of him. He frowned sleepily. What were…?

"_HOLY…_!" Light jerked backwards so fast he nearly gave himself whiplash. There was a loud crash as he toppled completely backwards out of his chair, cracking his head on the tile floor. The chair went with him—the source of the crashing noise. The rest of the

"What the hell, Ryuuzaki?!" the teen shouted. "Why do you always do that?!"

"Always?" L straightened up (or, as much as he ever straightened up) and gave Light a curious look. "To my knowledge, this is the first time I have woken Light-kun in such a manner."

"Eh…?" the boy paused and frowned. "Sorry, déjà vu, I guess."

"Would Light-kun care to share why he seems particularly lethargic this morning?" L inquired, taking his own seat once more and lifting his fork, though he did not begin digging into the cake in front of him yet.

"Well, for one thing, Kira hasn't killed a single person in weeks," Light began, "which somehow is making you keep us even _later_ than when he was an active threat. For another, I haven't been sleeping well even when you've let me."

"I see," L chewed thoughtfully on his cake for some minutes before swallowing and speaking again. "Is Light-kun having bad dreams?"

"Not bad ones," Light frowned. "Just… really weird. There are dragons and things, and for some reason you're there, too. And I have a tail."

"That is certainly odd," L agreed, expertly concealing his own desire to frown. Those dreams sounded very similar to ones he'd been having recently as well—though, admittedly, he rarely slept at all. How odd…

And it was true what Light had said. Kira appeared to have disappeared off the face of the earth just a few weeks earlier. No new trails had cropped up, and the investigation team was at an impasse. Suspiciously—to L—Light had broken up with his girlfriend around the same time. How L knew he had a girlfriend he would never know, but for some reason that fact bothered him. Perhaps it had something to do with the dreams he'd been having, dreams in which he was watching himself kiss Light with inexplicable jealousy, and other ones in which he was watching Light mourn his own dead body.

And in most of them, Light had a tail.

Very odd indeed. L glanced up at the spreadsheet on his computer screen, took another bite, and glanced back at Light. Perhaps they could discuss these similar dreams in greater detail later. Such as later that night, when the others went home to sleep, and Light and L were the only two in an empty hotel room…

Yes, they would definitely have to discuss this. L smirked and bit off another bite of cake.

And, for some reason, Light smiled back, thinking the exact same thing.

Outside the window of the hotel room, the wind slid along the glass and stone façade, giggling at the sights and conversations it beheld within before tearing away to loop over the city with a joyous whoop. Beneath it, citizens looked up and smiled at nature's unbridled enthusiasm as the wind whipped away to places unknown, were not even the birds could follow it.

xXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

The forest stirred sluggishly, like a sleeping beast trying to twitch away an annoying fly. The wind—the fly—curled lovingly around the trees, tossing up joyful handfuls of leaves. The leaves danced above their brethren, skimming over sloping fields of boulders before rounding the top of the mountain. All around, more mountains rose, sheltering the small one in their midst with the protective gentleness of older siblings. The sky stretched above, smiling at the mountain with cloudy lips and winking so that only one bright eye could be seen.

The wind whistled across the barren top of the mountain, sending arrowheads of dust skittering along the flat surface like frightened mice. The wind paused halfway across, curling around into a small vortex as if curious, surrounding the object that had caught its attention.

A small green bud bobbed a polite hello to the wind from where it sat atop its slender stalk. A single leaf kept the bud company, fluttering its own greeting in a casual way. The wind moved on, shrieking with joy. It dove back down into the trees to blow into the faces of every animal it could find, howling the good news.

The amaranth was growing. Soon it would bloom once more into startling mediocrity that hid a beauty far beyond words. The wind brought the message across the forest and into the city, sweeping past the guards that now patrolled it and tugging on their tabards emblazoned with a gothic L. It swirled up to the castle looming above it all and shrieked across the dirt courtyard, into the hallways that were now filled with officials of all species and tail lengths.

Along its way, the wind trailed ghostly fingers across two unmarked humps of dirt in the corner of the courtyard. It shook the young roses that grew atop one so that they wrapped frightened, thorny stems around the stems of the lilies and daffodils that grew atop the other one. The bushes entwined together until it was impossible to separate one from the other. In time, the humps would be completely covered by this unique hedge.

The wind swirled upwards as if to touch the very vault of the sky itself, bellowing insubstantial laughter over all it surveyed.

"Whoo-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo!"


End file.
